Final PLN

This is screenshot of my PLN. I used Symbaloo to create it. It has everything I need posted on it so I can access the websites quickly and easily. I have on my PLN Gmail, South Alabama, Facebook, Google, USA Online, Blogger, Charter, Twitter, Regions, Skype, Audacity, EDM310, and the ALEX websites. These are the sites that I visit most often. I use all of the listed websites regularly for my personal and educational experience. My PLN will never be finished because I believe that I will keep learning in order to better myself and my students. I think my intellectual journey has been wonderful. I have learned so much and so many different tools I can use to further my learning and my future students learning. I have learned more than what I thought was even out there. This class has given me such insight on how to teach my students and the many different things I can do in my classroom to teach my children through technology. The progress I have made with my PLN is so great and I am so proud of myself. I plan to keep expanding my PLN throughout the years and making my learning and teaching experience more enjoyable.

Thanksgiving St. Louis 2010

C4K Summary #8-#11

C4K #8- "Mahana's Super Cool Animation of Her Pirate Ship!" This post is an animated movie of Mahana's pirate ship she created. The ship moves across the blue water as a clapping sound effect occurs. It really brings life to the ship! It was a very cute video.

C4K #9- "Today I read Snakes During Reading Class". This came from a fourth grade class and they call themselves the Shooting Starts. This post was a few questions that the class put together to ask about snakes after reading about them in class. The questions were

Why did people think snakes had powers?
Why did people kill snakes?
Why did snakes eat their prey before killing their prey?
Why did some snakes live underground?

I think it was great the child came up with their own question to ask about what they learned that day.

C4K #10- "Flat Arjun Leaves Home". Flat Arjun (like Flat Stanley) is leaving Westford, MA and headed to India. He is ready for some fun! This post was by Arjun and he is sending him flat self to India. I think this project is great and I will incorporate this in my classroom one day.

C4K #11- "Walk Two Moons". This was a post by a student named Clare. She wrote a short sentance about a book her friend suggested her to read, "Walk Two Moons". She heard it is a great book and is excited to start reading the book. I commented and told Clare how important and fun reading is and that I hope she enjoys the book!

Special Assignment Yasmine- "The Best Recess in History!". This post by Yasmine was really cute and enjoyable to read. She talks about how she had the best recess ever because she and her friends were doing gymnastics on the playground. Her and a friend did a really cool trick together and all of her classmates were clapping and cheering them on. She felt as if she was flying and wanted everyone to see. She exclaims that this was the best recess in history!

C4T #4 Summary

Ms. Jenny She is a primary school teacher in New Zealand. She created this blog to record her experiences, reflection, learning, sharing, and any other things that matter to her career as a teacher.

We had the Dragon Dance at the Cultural Festivals at our School {September 26, 2010}

In this blog post by Ms. She, she discusses the dragon dance her students did for their schools cultural festival. She and Helen Squires put the idea together. In the performance her students did  a traditional dragon dance, kung fu, and umbrella dancing for the schools culture festival. Ms. She's students are very talented. Ms. She has a video of her students participating in the culture festival.

We Should Listen to the Kids

{July 7, 2010}

This post by Jenny She was great. It was about teachers or adults always being in charge and always being right. The post also discusses how teachers and adults can learn from students. For example, in this post Mrs. She talks about when she was a first year teacher she had no idea how to use a Mac. She was very embarrassed and didn't want her colleagues to know so she asked a grade 6 student to help her use the mouse. This is a great example of how teachers and adults can learn from children. Even if it is as simple has how to use a computer mouse. Mrs. She also posted a video of a child giving a presentation about adults and teachers listening to children advice. This video was fantastic and makes adults want to give children more credit. The over all message of this post and this video is to LISTEN TO THE CHILDREN! Simple as that. It is to listen and learn from children and they will listen and learn from you.

 

Additional Assignment #5

Tom Johnson's Adventures in Pencil Integration

I really enjoyed reading all of Mr. Spencers posts. They all related to education very well and made me think about when I will be a teacher.

The first post I read was Just Teach Them to Solve for X. I really enjoyed this post, I actually chose to comment on this post. I loved the metaphor technique used in this post. The post was about the problems he was facing from using metaphors to teach. I think it will be very helpful for students to learn, in fact I may use this in my classroom one day if it is necessary.

I then read The Medium Shapes the Learning. This post was about keeping the students engaged in the material and in learning. I think this is very important becuase if your students are interested and engaged in the learning process, the more they will learn and take away from the experience. If you can remember one thing as a teacher, it should be to keep your students engaged.

The post Sketch Portraits was very interesting as well. It was about describing the pencil as many different things. It is important to recognize that students will change from day to day or year to year and it is the teachers job to adjust to these changes and still make sure that the student learns just the same. 

The last post I read was He Just Likes the Class For the Pencils. This post is about having a healthy relationship with your students. You want you students to look up to you and trust you as a role model. It is important to let students know you care about them and want to help them. If they see that you care, they will care in return.

Atlanta Thrashers Hockey

Dave Matthews Band Atlanta, GA November 2010

Blog Assignment #13

ALEX

ALEX stands for Alabama Learning Exchange. Before this assignment I have heard ALEX mentioned once or twice. I did not know what it meant or what it does, however I had heard the term before. The ALEX website is designed for aspiring teachers and current educators. It is a great website because it  has lesson plans posted for all subjects and for all teachers to see. The lesson plans are all led by the guidelines of ALCOS (Alabama Course of Study) as well which is important because as a teacher you already know that the lesson already meets the states standards. There are links on this website that go to podcasts, a personal workspace, and professional learning websites. Teachers are also able to make their own lesson plans with ALEX and other teachers can view them as well. 

I really enjoyed viewing this website. I am so happy that I know that something like this exists! It will be very helpful for me when I am an educator. I will enjoy seeing what other teachers are doing and the lessons they are teaching. I am interested to see the creativity as well. I am also excited to share my work and lessons with other educators as well. I think it is important to share ideas to better our students education. It will also be extremely helpful because all of the lessons presented follow the Alabama Course of Study which is necessary. I will no longer have to search through websites and find lesson that do no meet my schools or state requirements. It is such a great resource and I will absolutely utilize this website in my teaching career.

Project 15 "Who Will You Choose To Be?"

Form Results and Summary

Summary

Most students in this survey live at The Grove or within 10 miles of campus. The majority of students drive to school. Surprisingly, most students that took this survey do not park in a designated parking zone, they chose other. More than half of the students who took this survey have recieved a parking ticket from the University of South Alabama. Most students have recieved between 1 and 5 tickets. Most students agreed that there are not enough parking spaces at the University of South Alabama. The parking service at the University of South Alabama was rate very poor to okay by these students. Overall, the studnets who were given this survey stated that the University of South Alabama should make changes to the parking services. Students think that there should be more parking spaces.

Progress Report on Final Project

We are making some progress on project 16. I have met with my group this week. We have been discussing ideas and trying to think of something creative. Our plans are to keep in touch by email and meet sometime next week to discuss some more ideas we may have. From there we will design our project and get to work on it ASAP. We are trying to be very creative with this project so we are thinking really hard!!

Blog Assignment 12

Blog Assignment 12 DUE 11/14

Read this article 'Teacher Expectations Raise Student Achievement' about teacher expectations and student achievement http://www.suite101.com/content/teacher-expectations-raise-student-achievement-a167553


Also watch this video 'Expectations: The Self-fulfilling Prophecy' about teacher expectations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4wL5t8YH1Q


After reading the article and watching the short video, write a short summary of each. Once you have done so, then express your thoughts on the topic. This is an important topic for aspiring teachers so it is important you understand it.

Teacher Expectations Raise Student Achievement
The Article "Teacher Expectations Raise Student Achievement" discusses the importance of expectation in all areas of teaching. The article says that if you expect your students to fail and behave badly, that is the result you will most likely get. If you expect your students to do excellent work and behave properly, that is also the result you will most likely get. You must have the right attitude about learning and teaching in order to have your students achieve. The overall message of this article is if you have high expectations, your students will have higher achievements. If you have low expectations, the students will only achieve what you expect of them. I think this article is important for aspiring educators to read. I think it is important to understand the your expectations you set for your children will determine the outcome of their work and what they achieve. When I am an educator I will set my expectations and my students will be able to greatly achieve.

Expectations: The Self-fulfilling Prophecy

This video is a discussion about the effect of teacher expectations. The video explains how important it is to have high and helpful expectations for students. The woman narrating this video says something that I really like, she says "Students tend to live up to the expectations that their teachers set for them". I believe this quote one hundred percent. As a teacher if you set your standards high, your students will reach those standards. If you keep your standards low, they will give you what you expect. It gives an example of a teacher telling a student that they were expecting a D from them and that is what the student got. This remark does not help the student, it only hurts. The teacher didn't say the student was stupid but the implication was clear. Teachers and parents should both have high expectations for children. I think this video is important because it stresses the importance of having high expectations. In my opinion teacher expectations and student achievement go hand in hand. It is important to set high standards for our children for them to succeed.