C4K #7 and Summary

For my C4K for weeks five, six, and seven, I had a little more trouble than I had before in my past C4K.  Not only did I include my week four C4K in my last summary, but I also had problems with a few of my author's blog posts. Nevertheless, I chose a few students from Mrs. Maslowski class blog that had some really great posts!

For my week five C4K, I chose to comment on Ariel's blog post that described her experience job shadowing at Saint Joseph Hospital near her home. Ariel wants to be a nurse one day and she was very excited to blog about her experience. Ariel said that she spent a lot of time with a cardiac nurse, seeing how they knew what drugs to administer to patients and even what technology is involved in keeping the hospital organized and functioning. I enjoyed reading about her experience at Saint Joseph hospital. In my comment, I introduced myself and told her that when I first started college, I was going to school to one day become an orthodontist. I asked Ariel if she was interested in any specific type of nursing, like cardiac, neonatal, or orthopedic nursing. I left a link to my blog and I am still waiting to hear from her.

For my week six C4K, I chose to comment on Melissa's blog post which was about her feelings toward standardized testing. As a future teacher, I am very passionate about the effects and outcomes of standardized testing so I was interested to see her opinion on the subject. Melissa feels very strongly that standardized testing does not determine your success as a student, or as a person in general. She had great word choice, as well as impeccable grammar and spelling throughout her post. Melissa stated that she had not been nervous during her standardized test, but that other people do get nervous during exams. I replied and told Melissa that I have extreme test anxiety and that it has really hindered my confidence and performance in the past. It was nice to see a student's view on standardized testing and it felt really great to hear an opinion that was so passionate and honest, like hers. What I loved about this post is that Melissa proudly stated her talents and knew that a test that existed on a simple piece of paper did not define her abilities and her intelligence.

For week six C4K, I commented on Jack's blog post about hitting a "dinger". I wasn't really sure
what a "dinger" was, but his context clues led me to believe that a "dinger" is similar to hitting a home run. Jack's post was very confident but he still needed some more information about baseball. In my comment, I let him know that he should add more information about "dingers" and the sport, just so his readers could get a better understanding of his post. Hopefully Jack will be able to add more details so it will give his post more length and more understanding by the reader.

I always enjoy C4K, because I am constantly amazed at the student's opinions and ideas in their post. I can't wait to see what my future students will write about and surprise me with in my future class blog.

Project #12a

Blog Post #10

This week we watched a three-part conversation between Dr. Strange and Kathy Cassidy discussing the benefits of using technology in the classroom and what techniques Mrs. Cassidy finds successful in her classroom. Mrs. Cassidy is a firm believer in teachers being technologically literate. She believes that "technology is here to stay" and that as teachers, we would be doing a disservice to our students by not using technology to collaborate on ideas, problems, and solve real world issues. One technique of Mrs. Cassidys that I would love to use in my future classroom is orchestrating a class blog. She believes that a class blog gives students the opportunity to broadcast their work. When students post any work online, it is made available to parents, peers, and other audiences for viewing. This not only increases the pride in the student's work, but also inspires the student to be able to see and know that there are other people reading what they have written or created. The student then becomes empowered to learn and find the right answers, rather than feeling limited by a teachers red grading pen. What I love about this technique is the fact that student's parents can go online at any time and view their child's progress. Instead of waiting for a meeting or a classroom visit to see their children's work, parents can take just a few seconds out of their day to go online, even at work, and see the amazing things that are happening in the classroom. Mrs. Cassidy even went so far as to send home a form that parents must sign giving consent for the students to post their work online, also including different ways that their child's identity will be protected. I feel like this is a great way to engage parents and students with technology, and now that I have been very dedicated to my class blog in EDM310, I can lead my future class blog with confidence. Not every teacher has the confidence to use technology in the classroom. Mrs. Cassidy believes that best way to feel confident about using technology and beginning to incorporate using it regularly is to find something that you are interested in and plug into it. Whether you are into taking pictures, watching videos, writing, reading or any other medium, there is an opportunity to get involved technologically. I think that many educators feel that technology is only useful for certain subjects such as social studies and science. I think it is our challenge to incorporate using technology in all subjects, even math and physical education. Mrs. Cassidy is a great example of teachers who indulge in using technology in an effective way in the classroom.  We need many more teachers like Mrs. Cassidy who can rise to the occasion of teaching and engaging our students through technology.

Project #9

Blog Post #9

This week, we were faced with the question, "what can teachers and students teach us about project based learning?" At first I thought that this question had an obvious answer. The more I researched my response to this question, the more I actually did learn about project based learning from students and teachers alike.

One of the most important concepts to project based learning, I learned from reading Seven Essentials to Project-Based Learning. This article shows us how important it is to have a driving question when undertaking a project based learning approach. The goal is to not just give students "a packet of papers" that represents a poster-board project that simply showcases what the students learned. The objective of project based learning to present a problem, let the students decide their driving question, and then solve that driving question by whatever means they choose. Then, teachers are able to see the hard work, creativity, and conceptual learning that is involved in the student's learning process. Students are then in control of their learning, are able to make corrections and revisions, and can be prideful when they present their work to people of the community. This gives the students the ability to see worth and accomplishment in their work. As mentioned in the video Project-Based Learning for Teachers, students are more successful when they have a purpose, address an audience, craft a driving question, are able to identify learning standards, create  rubrics, brainstorm in groups, and meet deadlines.

I also believe that project based learning is a two way street of communication between students and teachers. Students that feel comfortable giving feedback to their teachers about what they would like to learn and create can greatly improve and motivate students in the success of project based learning in the classroom. According to students in the video What Motivates Students Today, students enjoy opportunities to be spontaneous and unconventional in the classroom. Children are motivated to learn when they are able to take pride in their work by being rewarded or even by being complimented and acknowledged for their accomplishments. Students also said that they enjoyed being outside, as well as being active in the classroom, rather than sitting at their desk all day.

Sammamish High School in IL is making a complete switch to project based learning throughout the school. From the information provided in the video, they have been making this switch a 3-5 year process as faculty and staff collaborate on how to incorporate project based learned into every subject area. From teachers at Sammamish High School, we can empower ourselves as educators by following their example to make the switch to project based learning, and to also collaborate on ideas with our fellow educators! I think that sometimes we forget that we are a community of learners and that we all face problems and stubborn points of view. Teachers must stick together, to brainstorm, and to encourage each other to think outside of the box when it comes to lesson plans, rubrics, and projects. We are our best asset!

Even though it is difficult to incorporate project based learning to certain subject areas, especially math and English, but it can be done! Several teachers and engineers at Aviation High School combines their effort to create a math project that enables students to create a wing-like structure out of the materials of their choosing, while staying within the dimensional constraints. This gives students the freedom to be creative, all why encouraging real-life math problems that involve geometry, weight distribution, physics, and careful calculations. We can learn from these educators that with collaboration hard work, any subject area can participate in the compelling world of project based learning.

 These guys used technology to solve a real life and real annoying ketchup problem through project-based learning. Check it out! 

Project #13

Project 13: Team Serval "A Time to Travel" lesson plan

Rubric for "A Time to Travel"

C4T Summary

I had the absolute privilege of interacting with such an awesome teacher as Denise Krebs, for my C4T.  From just viewing her blog, I knew I would be able to connect with her easily. Denise is currently living in the Middle East teaching kindergarten ELL (English language learners) students. Her first post that I chose comment on, talked about her concept of genius hour where she lets her students choose what they will learn and how to present, create or inspire what they have learned. Denise shares that it was very different from the 7th and 8th grade genius hours that she was used to participating in, but it still did not disappoint. I absolutely loved the concept of genius hour and tried to tell her so by leaving a comment on her blog post. Unfortunately, she hadn't posted in a while so she turned disabled the comments section of her blog. Nevertheless, I sent her an email and introduced myself and told her how fascinated I was with genius hour. I let her know that I couldn't comment on her blog but that I wanted to still tell her how inspiring it was to me that her students were creating things they wanted to create with materials they had chosen, all why learning a second language! I sent her a link to my blog in the email and I actually received a reply from Mrs. Krebs! These were her kind words in her reply:

"Hello,and welcome to being a connected educator. So much lies in store for you! I just went to your blog. I loved this: "She strived to show compassion, to inspire creativity, and to give hope to all of her students." And your passion to "embrace continual learning." Awesome! I can relate so much!

It's not your computer that didn't allow you to post a comment on my blog! I have it set to stop the conversation after a few months. I'm not sure it's really necessary, but I wanted to be sure not to get spam comments on old posts that I wasn't keeping up with anymore. I need to post again!  

I also have a couple other blogs that get more regular attention these busy days in kindergarten! http://krebs.edublogs.org (class blog) and http://krebsfollow.org (My husband and I try to update this one, but we're falling behind there too!)

Anyway, best wishes to you as you grow in all you are learning in EDM310 and all your classes."  

I was tickled to get a reply and better yet, she was kind enough to go take a look at my blog! It was a moment where I felt proud and excited about my teaching career. I was even more excited when I was able to comment on her most recent post of just about a week ago. Not only was is great to see Mrs. Krebs posting again, but it was another post about genius hour! This time, Mrs. Krebs was reaching out to other teachers through twitter, asking them about their experiences with genius hour and about how they differentiate each genius hour. She even posted some of the Q&As from the #geniushour conversation that really appealed to her. I enjoyed the continuing conversation about genius hour, and hope that I can use this concept in my future classroom. This time. I was able to leave her a comment on her post. I let her know how great it was to see her posting again and that I was thrilled to receive her email. I told her that I would soon be digging around twitter for her genius hour hashtag and couldn't wait to see what resources that would bring about for my personal learning network. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with Mrs. Krebs and following her progress with her students in the Middle East. She is a great inspiration to add to my personal learning network. I will definitely be returning to her blog to see what the next genius hour will bring!

Tweets From Genius Hour Chat

Blog Post #8

This week we were asked to view the very last lecture given by Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch who inspired millions of people through his career and through simply accomplishing his life dreams. What an inspiration! Even though Randy died from cancer at an early age, he was still able to complete his life goals, teach and inspire learning and creativity around the world, and have fun while doing all of it. In his last lecture, Randy's light and kind heart as well as his passion for learning and growing is such an example to teachers and students alike. As a future educator, I can really take a lot from Randy Pausch's life and attitude towards his dreams.
In his last lecture, Randy tells story after story of how he achieved or came close to achieving all of his major life goals and dreams. Randy continuously refers to "brick walls" that hindered him from his dreams. He explains that these "brick walls" are only there to "keep out the people who don't want it as bad as you do." They are not meant to stop you, but to decipher who is deserving and who is not. "Brick walls" can be people, situations, teachers, parents, students, schools, documents, and anything else that can cause a problem on your journey to success, As a student and a teacher, we will all encounter these "brick walls". Randy tells us that this is the time to push harder in our education, or in our teaching methods, a break through will happen if you push through that brick wall. How do you push through that brick wall? Randy believes this take consistency. "Stick around long enough and people (situations) will surprise you; you will see someone's (something's) good side." This is so fundamental to us as educators. If we continue to invest and push through our frustrations with students or even parents, we will see a change. Our students will surprise us. We will accomplish our intentions! How do you keep from becoming frustrated while pushing through "brick walls"? Randy has an answer to that questions too: have FUN! Have fun while teaching your students! Let your students have fun while they are learning. Randy says that kids can learn difficult concepts if they are having fun. This helps both you and your students become learners, which creates such a productive atmosphere that can facilitate knocking down those "brick walls".  Randy also gives great advice on how we can become better learners. He says that if we listen to criticism, apologize when we are wrong, always work hard, and always do the right thing, we cannot fail! Randy Pausch's life is a true testament to all this  wonderful advice. Not only does his life experiences give us a guideline to be better learners and teachers, but to be better than who were yesterday, and even better than the person we will be tomorrow.

Project #7b

C4K #4 and C4K February Summaries

I look forward to my C4K every week because I love getting the chance to interact with different students from all over the country and also getting that sneak peak of what they are learning in their classrooms.

My first C4K was for Chaise in Mr. Boylen's 7th grade Literature class. He was giving a summary of a book he had just finished reading called I Funny: A Middle School Story by James Paterson. Chaise explained that I Funny was about a kid named Jamie who is in a wheel chair and left to live with his aunt and uncle after his parents die in a car crash. Jamie is apparently a cool and funny kid who tells great jokes, but still continues to get bullied at school. In my comment to Chaise about his book summary, I told him that the cover of the book made it look funny, but that his summary made the book sound some what sad. I told him I knew how Jamie must have felt not having his parents because my Mom died last year. I also asked Chaise if he had ever been bullied before and what could he do prevent bullying at his school. He had some errors, such as punctuation and capitalization, but I gave him guidance on how to correct his mistakes. I haven't heard from Chaise yet but he had quite a few comments on his blog so I assume that his classmates really like his posts.

My second C4K was for Kaleb who is in Mr. Boylen's 8th grade Language Arts class. I think Kaleb's post was my favorite C4K so far, because Kaleb and his friends Tim and Hunter put together an iMovie production of their "verb" parody to "Ice Ice Baby." I think they had some issues with their sound during the recording process, but regardless it was still awesome to be able to see their faces and be apart of what they are learning in the classroom. I told Kaleb that his video was really cool to watch and that I had noticed that he and his friends had used iMovie to make the video. I also asked him if he liked using iMovie and what kind of presentations/videos he had created before using iMovie. I know we have used iMovie in EDM310 and its really great to be able to see it being used in other classrooms all around the country.





\My third C4K was for Miranda in Ms. Leatherwood's 8th grade Language Arts class. For some reason, I am having trouble finding Miranda's post that I had commented on. Her post was called, "The Fear That I Faced" which was a story about her first day at a new school. Miranda told about how nervous and scared she was to enter into a new school without her friends. She used a lot of descriptive language, used metaphors, and gave plenty of emotion in her blog post. In the end, Miranda said that she really liked her new school because it challenged her more than her old school. She said she also liked her new school because she could really be herself instead of "trying to fit in". I told Miranda that I really enjoyed her post and that it is always better to stand out and be yourself than to try to "fit in" with the crowd. I also told Miranda that I too knew what it felt like to be the "new kid" at school because I had to go to a new school when I was her age. I think Miranda is a really great writer and should definitely keep up her blog posting.

My Final C4K was for Alyssa in Mrs. Maslowski's 10th grade class. I believe that Alyssa and her classmates were celebrating Black History Month by learning about a famous/influential African American and posting a summary about their chosen person in their blogs. Alyssa chose to talk about Jacki Robinson. Alyssa made a connection with Jackie Robinson because she plays softball and he paved the way for African Americans to have the right to play Major League Baseball. Alyssa said that she chose to celebrate Jackie Robinson's accomplishments because he had gone through so much persecution to be able to play a sport that we all love. I told Alyssa that I like the picture of Jackie Robinson that she used and that I also played softball when I was about her age. I asked her what her favorite position to play was and how long she had been playing. She did not have any errors in her post, so I complimented her on her good work.

In all of my comments, I left a link to my blog and introduced myself as a student of the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL. I really enjoy reading these kids blogs and seeing how technology has been used in various classrooms in different ages and states. C4K truly inspires me to get my future classroom motivated to create a class blog!