Final Project

Blog Post #14

In the article, Teacher Knows If You've Done the E-Reading by David Steitfeld, he talks about a online text book that teachers use in the classroom called CourseSmart E-Texbooks. These books are awesome and can track the students history of when and for how long they read their textbook. It tells the teacher know who is actually studying or who opens the textbook the night before the test. They know when the students are skipping pages, not highlighting important information, or not even opening the book. This is seriously the coolest thing I’ve ever heard of! I think this new form of technology is extremely helpful because it can increase the number or students who will actually study instead of just cramming the night before the test. It also gives the option of one on one teaching with the students instead of just reading straight from the book during class. As a student, I am in love with this type of studying because it seems super interesting a great way to persuade me to actually do my work early instead of waiting until the day it is due (like I am doing right now). I like the feature of being able to highlight the important material and that it saves your place for you to come back later.

If I were to talk to the teacher described in the article I would ask the following questions..
1. Do the E-books help or hurt your students more?
2. Are the student’s grades improving significantly?
3. Do you or your students have any major problems using this online method?

If I were to ask the students in his class I would ask the following questions...
1. Do you like this system, or would you rather use the more traditional teaching way?
2. Do you think your grades are better since using E-books?
3. Is there something about E-books you like better than the old teaching way?
4. If you could change anything about this system what would it be?

I had to think long and hard as to what comment I would leave Mr. Steitfeld, and then I realized I would simply thank him. All the other comments came off extremely ill, and honestly I find that to be just rude. The man was simply sharing some knowledge and I really like the idea of an online text book where the teacher can see what the student is doing. Also, if the student can highlight some parts in the book, they could highlight something they don’t understand and go over it the next day in the class. People need to realize technology is a coming and we just got to hold on for the ride. This is an exciting new find and I truly like it.

Final C4T

This week I read a post from Mrs. Becky Goerend and her blog Live the Conversation. She is an extraordinary teacher who writes about daily life as a teacher. In her particular blog that I read "Struggles" she discussed how hard it is to get her students to calm down with the socializing and pay attention to her lesson. I left her a comment agreeing with how hard that can be because I am an after school counselor and I too sometimes run into this problem with my own class. She didn't have any replies from other teachers with suggestions, but she said she will be putting up follow up blog with results from other teaching methods that her colleagues have tried. Can't wait to read it!

SMART Board Project #2

Group #1
Whitney, Roanna, and myself are the best team in the WORLDDDDD

Blog Post #13

1. Back to the Future
What a fantastic video, the kids were using technology with their studies and appeared to really be habing fun doing so. This video showed me how the children didn't necesarily learn directly from the technology, it was just there to help them! They used that technology to help them learn and grow outside of the classroom. Mr. Crosby was my kind of teacher, he used to technology to show the children things, but then allowed them to go out and experience things first hand. The children worked with there hands and then would use technology to share their experiments with the world!!! Mr. Crosby was a great a teacher, he was the kind of man that believed in using technology but not absolutely relying on it to teach his students. He was a great man and a true inspiration for all future teachers.

2.Blended learnig cycle
Paul Anderson combines Blended learning and the Learning Cycle into something that is his very own system which he calls QUIVERS. This is an arcronym for Question, Investigation, Video, Elaboration, Review, and Summary quiz. He tries to pose questions for the class to allow them to debate and investigate the answers. He uses technology to show the answer and help the class. The class then takes the answer and tries to disect it and teach each other something they didn't notice before. This is a fun and interesting approach to teaching, it gives the students the confidence to look for the answer and even when they get it wrong they are given the chance to fix it and help their peers. I love this and I really feel like it could be good in a classroom, it gets the kids working together and not struggling on their own. If a child doesn't understand something this teaching approach shows kids that they aren't alone and can work together and fix the outcome. It's great and I know any teacher could use this in almost in classroom. (I didn't post any images to go along with this blog post because my computer has decided to be a total butt, sorry.)

C4K Assignments 5

#9 Chris S.
Chris is a 4th grader in Mrs. Geldes class. They live in Nebraska and he told his readers a story about snow. There was also a little bit about "Daisy" who had been shot, but was ok now. It was a confusing story to follow because it lacked punctuation. However, I give the kid props because I don't even remeber 4th grade stories I told and he was telling his in a blog. What a super smart kid, can't wait to see what the next C4K brings!

#10 Ava
Ava is in something called 4KM and 4KJ, she is from Austrailia and I guess school grades are slightly different. She is a very bright little girl. All of her posts were extremly well written and exciting! She has a strong love for horses and it shows all over her blog. She wrote about horses and all the different types there are, I had no idea there were like thousands of kinds of horses. It was super cute blog and I truly enjoyed reading her work.

Final Project Progress Report

This week, Tuesday, we made all of our picture slides for the project introducing the project, each other, our topics, and acknowledgements. On Thursday, we filmed all of our tips and suggestions. We also edited all the slides and videos into the order they appeared on our outline that we made last week. None of the music has been added yet and hopefully the finalization and uploading will be easy to complete next Tuesday. Be ready for a sweet Final Project!!!!

Blog Post #12

In this week's blog assignment Dr. Strange has us create our own blog assignment speacilizng in our feild of education. To be honest I am completley lost, and not really sure how to go about doing this so instead I just started Googling "history teachers with a blog" well after a few duds I found this blog called US History Teachers Blog and y'all...I was hooked. Everything I read was cool and neat, he had a few games that caught my eye that I would totally use in my classroom, like Jeopardy. This teacher's blog is phenominal! He even has helpful things for quizzes and reviewing. This teacher is on top of his game and a total help for newbies like me! Ya'll should check it out if you are interested in teaching history like me.

Blog Post # 11

This week's topic for blog was posting was pretty exciting for me. We have been given opportunities to speak to children almost every week and this week we are all meeting the same classroom and same teacher. This was great and so much fun to see a first hand account of what a teacher who uses technology in the classroom is actually thinking. Miss. Cassidy and her first grade class are such a great inspiration for future teachers. She is so positive and understands that technology and classroom are certainly beginning to integrate more and more each year. She is doing so much to help her students make it and understand technology better. She has her young students doing so much more than I ever could when I was their age, heck they are doing more than I could even do last semester! I think it is fantastic that she is doing all these things; my favorite thing that she does is the video games. Honestly I have always hated video games but I can't seem to go anywhere without seeing a child on a video game device of some sort. As an educator she has turned video games into a way for those children actually take away some knowledge from playing on them. She says in the Skype video that we watch, that as teachers we should "do it for what we are interested in," talking about the ways to relate to the students when teaching. She gives different examples of tools to teach with and I think that is great! We need to be ready to jump in feet first with technology in the classroom. She also says that technology is here and only going to get bigger in the classrooms and she couldn't be more correct. There is no reason to shut it out; she said that some of her colleagues didn't necessarily want to change the way they taught and felt what she was doing wasn't the best way. She is great and I loved watching and hearing of what her students could do, those children have bright futures ahead of them and thanks to Miss. Cassidy they won't be afraid of technology as they get older. Those kids have already had some amazing opportunities and their horizons have been broadened by learning to work with technology at such an early age!

C4T #3

This week I left another comment for Mr. Crosby and his Learning is Messy blog! I am never bored reading his blog he is always doing something super interesting and new! This week he delivered rainbow trout eggs to two fourth grade class rooms in Nevada. Every year these kids learn and track the life and growth of trout. He showed where the kids write down new information and how they knew that trout grew in cold dark climate so the class built special boxes to cover the tanks in their classrooms. I love getting to read his posts because he always has some cool project that he is sharing. I love these kinds of things so getting to read them is so much fun!

The week of March 1-April 7
The second post I read from Mr. Crosby was a little bit different than before. As usual he talks about STEM learning and how it affects the classroom. This week's post was different because it wasn't written directly on his blog, it was written on a completely different site but he gave his readers the link and I found it, read it and thanked him because I really do enjoy reading his posts because he is the type of teacher I admire. He is the hands on type that plays by his own rules really, his posts make him seem like he is just winging projects but he actually knows what he is doing and all his projects are fun and entertaining and could be great in almost any classroom. I love his ideas and think everyone should give them a chance, maybe even take what he has done and do something similar that works for your classroom and environment. JUST GIVE HANDS ON LEANING A TRY!!!!!

C4K assignments 4

#7 Matthew's awesome blog
This blog was interesting, and slightly hard to follow. I can't tell you his age or school and I promise I tried to find any information. I honestly don't even feel like any of his blogs made much sense but because I am not a heartless person and children are usually all over the place I found a post I could relate to. He was talking about a movie that I seriously just watched it was great. The post was about the movie Pitch Perfect and sadly he did not life it too terribly much. He was fun and seems full of energy so it is great that he is all about posting blogs and using technology!

#8 Madison: Genius Hour

This blog was probably by far one of my most favorite blog post I have gotten to read. It was from a 13 year old girl in Mrs. Krebs' class. She was explaining to her readers about how to paint your nails and do a special "newspaper effect." It was so neat, you paint your nails a base color and then after it drys you soak them in rubbing alcohol and then lay a news paper over them so that the lettering sticks, after a while you peel up the paper up and your nails have the letters attached. It was so cool because I am in love with painting my nails and just about every girlie thing there is. I told her about my Pintrest account and how I learned of other really cool nail painting ideas, and I even shared a few with her! I loved it and I had so much fun talking about it, it is so much fun when you can relate to the kids and I think that makes for a more entertaining classroom.

Blog Post #10

I'm a Papermate. I'm a Ticonderoga.

I have read this and the blog post and I hate to say it but I am severely lost and I am just super confused. I hate that I don’t get it. Please explain it to me. Again, I am so sorry!

Why Were Your Kids Playing Games?
In the post about Spencer readers learned that he was faced with an argument with his superiors and games used to help learn. Spencer uses real life heroes like soldiers and nurses to try and win the argument, and that was great. He said that they do the same thing to learn, and that is so true I have met so many people at the University of South Alabama in the nursing field who play fun games to help learn. Games in classrooms aren’t everyone’s favorite but I can honestly say when I get a classroom of my very own you can bet my students will be playing and having fun, and most importantly, LEARNING!

Avoid Social Networking
This post was hilarious! This has got to be a joke, teachers not even allowed to look at their students outside of the classroom! Haha I can’t even imagine trying to ignore a child outside of the classroom, the school I work at now I have children coming up to me all the time outside of work and I wouldn’t have it any other way! Kids are great and in the future I would hate to have children with teachers who act as if they didn’t exist outside of their classrooms.

Things to Think About
Mcleod is a someone that travels to different schools and in his own words “lives on the edge of deeper learning.” He pretty much talks about the things parents have thought at some point in time. Children have got to realize that not all technology in schools is bad. Parents have got to see that and recognize that these can be great learning tools. Kids need to be taught the right way to use the technologies in schools and what good they can do when using it!

Project #11

This isn't my original group but I am in this video because these groups allowed me to be in it so that I got credit for doing Project #11. Enjoy!

Project #14 SMARTboard

Hey everyone so I was really struggling today with putting this video together. It happens technology is not everyone's friend all the time. But this is my proof that I really did the work!!!! Sorry!!

Blog Post #9 (Due 3/24)

Posts By Mr. Joe McClung

Mr. Joe McClung has taken it upon himself to start a blog after his many years of teaching and is giving advice to future teachers. He writes a new post on the last day of school every year just to summarize what new things he has learned from that year. I chose to read the “What I Learned” posts from 2010-2012; this would be his third and fourth years.
In his third year post he told us it is important to remember what the reason we started teaching was; that reason was the children. He felt that the children were his main focus when it came to teaching and that this is how every teacher should work and feel about the children in their own classroom. He shares that children in the classroom will struggle and that we as teachers should guide them and not necessarily take over their problem that we should just help them to do better. Being on the outside with your coworkers isn’t a bad thing according to McClung; he says that he himself is an outsider at work but that he doesn’t care how his coworkers feel about him. He is more concerned with building a relationship with his students and trying to make their learning environment a better place. He is an outsider, and proud because he knows he is making a difference in his classroom for the children.
His fourth year post was a lot different from the others. It was shorter but it was stronger, it got straight to the point and got his message across. There were two main points and the first was “You gotta Dance with Who You Came to the Dance With.” He was again telling us readers that it is ok to not fit in with your coworkers and that you should not care what they think, and not to change who you are just because your peers look at you differently. There are only two people whose opinions should matter when it comes to the work place, the children and your superiors. His second point was was pretty blunt and simple; “Challenge yourself!” I could relate to this point much more than the others I read. I have been the victim of the boring classroom, where teachers sit and don’t push the students to do their very best, or give the classroom any fun exciting things to look forward to, it is just the same boring monotonous stuff that is dreadful to sit through day after day. He tells us that this is just unacceptable, we can’t get comfortable with teaching the same stuff day in and day out. He says we have to challenge ourselves as well as the students, we have to push them and get them excited to come to class. His goal is to ensure that his students enjoy the classroom and not resent school like he did as a child and these blog posts were written to help other future teachers do the exact same thing.

C4K Assignments 3

#5 3/8

Boy Scouts
This week I was assigned to Miss Mac's Outstanding Owls class. I got to learn about Marshall and his interests. He wrote a blog about how he is part of The Boy Scouts. I responded to his post telling him of how when I was younger I was a brownie which is like a girl scout, and how I did crafts and things. I asked if as a boy scout do they do crafts and I can't wait to see if he responds to me!

#6 3/19
Wanna Hang Out?
This week I was assigned to leave a comment for Megan in Mr. Seyfert's class. This time I had a bit of trouble with leaving a post, it wasn't physically hard I just wasn't sure how to go about commenting on this little girl's post. She wrote about wanting to hang out with a character in a book she was reading. I tried to see if other kids had written about the same book but honestly I just wasn't sure. I tried to stay positive I even asked what book was she referring to in her post. I told her that it is exciting to put yourself in the shoes of the main character and how it really makes the book come to life. I really want to know what book Megan is talking about, she seems so enthusiastic about wanting to hang out with the main character!!

Blog Post #8 (Due 3/10)

Richard Miller: This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2
Such an interesting video! I had a hard time focusing and following along with the video, but eventually things started to make more sense. He said some pretty neat things that he and colleagues had done. I don’t think I could have come up with the things he has done. He was right when said we need to get used to technology that it is constantly changing and we have to change with it. That is a statement that could not be truer! This video was seriously interesting and it was obvious that Dr. Miller put a lot of work into this. Technology is growing more and more and as teachers we will need to be prepared for this. Idea sharing and the use of the internet are a popular way for children of today to learn and as teachers we will need to be able to show our students the right ways to use these sources. Educated comes first and teaching the basics so that the children do their very best are what are most important. The key is in the way that we teach; our students no matter the age or skill level will be watching us, learning from us and it is on our shoulders to show them the correct way to work with multimedia. That is scary for me, if I don’t know what I am doing then I am teaching another group to go out into the world and do something wrong. Practice makes perfect, so our jobs now are to learn so that we understand and can teach our students the tools to work correctly with multimedia. Getting down the basics is the tough part, but eventually we will be able to do it and share it with our students.

Carly's blog post #12
Carly Pugh’s post was super fun and full of life. I loved the video at the end because it was the type of thing that makes you think. Are you honest like a child? Are you generally enthusiastic? Those are great questions to ask yourself on a daily basis. They are a great way to stay humble day to day. This post was very similar to Dr. Miller’s multimedia guide in that she gives tips for improving given assignments. And the links…OH THE MANY LINKS!!! Oh well, over all that was a super resourceful blog post.

The Chipper Series/EDM310 for Dummies
The first video covers so many topics that practically describe my entire life. I am a horrible procrastinator, for instance this post was allowed the extra time of being due on Sunday at mid night when it was originally set for Friday. Here I am doing it Sunday night. In the “teach me so I don’t have to learn” portion is practically describing how I feel about school in general, which is absolutely terrible. In the beginning of EDM310 I felt like the work we did was just silly “fill the time” stuff, but now I realize I have learned a lot and that the things I have found in this class are great resources to use later on in the classroom with my own students. Like Chipper, I realize I need school and a degree to get through life and I certainly hope it all works out in the end.
The second video EDM for Dummies was neat, but I feel like this might have been more useful at the start of this class. I definitely could have used the insight on the class so that I could have been more confident when starting out. I was not excited for the class because all the negative things I heard through the grape vine. Now I have come to realize that the class isn’t hard, you just have to take the time to do the work, and it gets easier.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
What a straight forward, no playing around video! It was so hard to believe how low the U. S. department of education was ranked. They were 55, which put them even below coal-mining industries. The order and control are lost inside the classrooms, which is why they are struggling so much. Technology is the up and coming resource needed in the class room. Today students really don’t have a choice, it is everywhere and is a major necessity. Learning isn’t the only reason technology can be so great. It is useful in the ways of connections, socially, in the business world, and so on. This video was 100% on the money, teachers need to be willing to grow technologically and need to be able to use technology inside the classroom. We might not be able to keep up with the ever growing technologies, but it is worth a shot and there is no need to keep it from the classrooms. Right now computers and things are just seen as a source of entertainment, but if teachers can provide ways to have their students using the technology for educational resources then those students are more likely to take this knowledge outside of their classrooms and use it in everyday life.

Scavenger Hunt 2.0
List of Things to Find
1. The first thing I have found is a website called Preziand it is fantastic! This website is like an online slide show sharing network. I could definitely use this site as a secondary social studies teacher because I could use the slides of other teachers or create mine own and share it other people in the world. I could also be assisted if I was incorrect or if I was stuck another person could interact and share with me the corrections and such.
2. The website Prezi had a few package deals...

These options are super helpful and a great way for people, especially struggling college kids like myself or the less fortunate children who are still trying to get out there and make a difference in the world.
3. Comic Strip
Read my comic strip here at Make Beliefs Comix!
Animoto provides users with a variety of tools for creating videos. Its focus is for videos in the classroom and enhancing the digital classroom. Animoto offers a free unlimited video account for educators.
4. I created a poll at Polleverywhere.com. Take mine here!

C4T #2

Third Grade with Mr. Capps
This week I am reading Mr. Capps blog and is a 3rd grade teacher out of Gulf Shores and seems very interested in hands on learning. The post I chose to comment on today is called "Multiplication Magic." He posted pictures of multiplication problems for his students and their parents so that they could work on them together. I love this idea it is a spectacular way for getting parents and children working together online and on the child's homework. I certainly enjoyed reading Mr. Capps blog and can't wait to read more!

Second blog post with Mr. Capps
This week I read a blog post where the students had to write a paper on a very popular topic, The Harlem Shake. This is a silly dance that has gone viral and is almost everywhere you turn (including The University of South Alabama and its basketball games). I am not exactly in love with the whole craze, but Mr. Capps using it in a classroom as a way for the kids to learn is great! The kids had to write about the history of the Harlem Shake, or the way it was making people from Harlem feel. He had a ton of great ways to make the children of his classroom think and used a relevant topic. I let him know that I certainly enjoyed it and thought it was fantastic!

Randy Pausch Last Lecture

What an inspirational teacher and speaker! Randy Pausch is a professor at Carnegie Mellon and this video is where he gave his last speech before he lost his battle with cancer. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this speech and learning about his childhood goals and what he did to try his best and achieve them. He is hardworking man with a strong presences about him, I would be lucky to have half the determination that he demonstrates in the video.


In his speech, "How to Achieve Your Childhood Dreams", he tells us how he achieved his childhood dreams. He tells us of the many things he wanted to achieve as a child and the ridiculous amount of obstacles he endured to pursue them. He shared a quote saying "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." This quote stuck with me because it is very true and reminds me of something my dad always tells me, if you fall off the horse you have to get back up or you'll never learn how to ride it.This is so true about so many different things in this world. Failure is bound to happen, but you can always over come it by never giving up faith and trying your hardest to accomplish something you set out to do.



Mr. Pausch tells his listeners that brick walls are there to prove how hard you are willing to work to obtain a goal.This statement could not be more true, especially when it comes to teaching. Your students might not always be the best at reading or writing and might need help. That is a teachers brick wall and giving up and just letting them fall behind is not acceptable, you have to break down that wall push forward and help that child you should get them excited about learning so that they want to better themselves and reach their full potential.



He says there are steps you can take on getting help when you need it. He stresses that you can not always get where you need to on your own, you should tell the truth and apologize when you are in the wrong. Mainly he said to "focus on others and not yourself." He is so right about apologizing and speaking honestly. Why lie or stay mad and not take responsiblity for your own actions? Apologizing and honesty will take a person a whole lot further in life. His main point was focusing on others, as an educator this is a big importance. You are a teacher, you are responsible for the 15+ something students and if you are busy being self centered, you aren't noticing that they need you and expect you to be there for them.



Randy had a strong motto: Don't complain, just work harder. This was how he wanted to be remembered. He didn't want to be remembered for his cancer or what he had to face going through that, he wanted to be remembered for how hard he worked, and how caring he was. In his lecture he showed the audience a great side of him. He never really believed in just giving up he wanted things in his life time and he certainly set out to get them. It was amazing to see all his accomplishments come true. I honestly can't even remember my younger life goals, but the ones I have made for myself I have yet to stop until I get them. I will push on and work for my goals just as Randy Pausch did and hopefully I too will be successful!

Project 8