Comments for Kids: October

Throughout the month of October, I had the pleasure of reading four kids' blog posts.  I enjoy reading the kids' blogs the most because they show how much these children are thinking about the world around them.  It also gives a certain insight to how they feel and how motivated they are to do well.  It is being drilled into my head, from all of education classes this semester, that a teacher must know her students.  I think that teachers are gaining so much by having their students write blogs and by keeping up with these blogs. 

Week of October 5, 2014: I commented on a blog belonging to a young man named Braxton.  Braxton's assignment was to discuss a subject that should be taught in all schools. He said that he thought that there should be a Bible class in every school.  I understand the issues associated with requiring every school to have a Bible class, but Braxton wrote his blog with such passion and love for Christ and it was inspiring, to say the least.  He said that his mission in life was to tell others about God. In my comment to Braxton, I told him I had gone to a Catholic School in high school and how much I enjoyed my religion classes and how they helped me come to know myself.

Week of October 12, 2014: During this week I commented on Dimitri's blog about students having their recess taken away as a punishment.  Dimitri said that he did not think that this was fair punishment because the reason the student was acting out is probably because he has too much energy, so if the teacher were to take away his recess it would only be furthering the issue.  I agree with Dimitri, I think that recess is extremely important for both the student and the teacher because it allows the teacher to take a step back and let the kids go wild (to an extent).  In his blog, Dimitri added a link to an article he read about taking student's recess away. I tried to read it, unfortunately I was unable to find the article he posted.

Week of October 18, 2014: Last week, I commented on a boy named Samuel's blog.  Samuel posted a very informative blog with tips for creating a good password for online websites.  Here are his tips:

•  Never reveal your password to ANYONE!
• Always keep your password random in other words never have a password that is personal.
• When you are typing your password in always hide it.
• Make your password memorable for yourself but not for other people because they could hack into your account and ruin everything.
• Make your password a combination of letters, numbers and symbols.

Pretty great tips, thank you, Samuel!

 

Week of October 26, 2014: This week I commented on a blog written by Zane.  Zane live in New Zealand and he posted a brochure he made in his post.  The brochure was for the Te Ana Ngai Tahu Rock Art Centre, which is a place where people can go and view the Maori Cave drawings.  I did not know anything about these cave drawing before reading his blog, so I did some research.  They are over 550 years old! I also learned about a Maorian mythological creature that can either be a large, horrifying monster or, to some, it is a protective guardian. I thought that was pretty neat.

SmartBoard (Project #12)

Kathy Cassidy (Blog Post #10)

Kathy Cassidy is an elementary school teacher in Moose Jaw, Canada and she uses technology in her classroom.  Mrs. Cassidy uses a wide range of techniques and devices to keep the kids interested in what they are learning.  She uses blogs to help with reading and writing, as well as Wikis, Skype, and even Nintendo DSs in the classroom.  One child discussed blogging for class and he said he enjoyed that other people could see the work that he doing, another said that blogging has helped when trying to sound out words.  The Wiki pages allow the students to interact with others. They had one particular project where they were learning about traditions and rituals, the students created a Wiki and students from other areas were able to comment and discuss their own traditions and rituals.  These kids even talked to a group of students from Alabama using Wiki! Mrs. Cassidy uses Skype conversations to have the children interact with professionals in different fields. What I thought was the most interesting, though, was her use of the Nintendo DSs in the classroom.  The children play NintenDogs to help their decision making skills and they also discuss what they did individually on their game in groups.  

Mrs. Cassidy began using technology in her classroom about ten years ago.  She has had a lot of time to work on and improve the way she uses certain tools. I really enjoy the many techniques Mrs. Cassidy uses to incorporate technology in the classroom, although, there are a few factors that may get in the way of the learning process.  Mainly, what the children may encounter online or what they post on the internet themselves.  There is a lot on the internet that is not suitable for children in elementary school and it can be difficult to screen for this. It is very important that the teacher be an active observer of what the children are seeing and doing.  Mrs. Cassidy said that she teaches her students how to be respectable digital citizens.  They are to be nice when they comment and just watch what they post in general.  Mrs. Cassidy added that she was not running into many problems keeping the children seeing only age appropriate materials, but the trouble came with keeping them off online games and making sure that what they were engaged in was educational material.  The distractions that come with technology are innumerable. 

Using technology in the classroom, in ways similar to Mrs. Cassidy, would help students become educated digital citizens, create deep rooted personal learning networks, and it allows them to help others.  The students are being introduced to so many new and interesting people through their blogs and Wiki pages.  The connections they make through these sites and tools allows them to grow socially and create personal learning networks that help them succeed.  In addition to having others help them succeed, the children can answer other student's questions.  This makes the student feel more confident when they are able to show off their knowledge of certain subjects.  One of the EDM students asked if Mrs. Cassidy was worried about students cheating because they are exposed to so many other student's work.  Her answer was that she was not worried and the point of using technology for learning was collaboration so it is not necessarily a bad thing that the children are using all of the sources provided to them.

Blog Post #9

This week's blog question is, "What can teachers and students teach us about Project Based Learning?"  In order to answer this question, Dr. Strange gave us a list of resources to check out.

First, I read an article titled Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning by John Larmer and John R. Mergendoller. The article opens with two criteria necessary for a project to be effective, which are it must be personally meaningful and the project must fulfill and educational purpose.  Then the article lists the essentials for Project Based Learning.  The seven essentials that Larmer and Mergendoller gave are:

1. A Need to Know

2. A Driving Question

3. Student Voice and Choice

4. 21st Century Skills

5. Inquiry and Innovation

6. Feedback and Revision

7. Publicly Presented Work

This list ties in directly with the next resource provided by Dr. Strange which was a video titled Project Based Learning for Teachers. Both of these resources explain how PBL turns the learning process into something more meaningful by giving students projects that are relevant to their lives.  The video explains that the Common Core State Standards answers the question WHAT students need to learn and Project Based Learning is HOW teachers should go about teaching these standards. In the video, Tony Vincent also provided the viewers with his own list.  This list, I like to call it the 4 Cs of Project Based Learning, explain the skills the children will be improving upon by using the PBL teaching method. The 4 Cs of of Project Based Learning are: Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Career and Life Skills.  These are important skills for the children to be working on because they will need them in every aspect of their life from the time they start school onward.  PBL used questioning, investigating, sharing and reflecting in order to improve these skills.

Majority of the resources for Project Based Learning have given advice and lists similar to the ones above.  Sometimes it is easier to understand how effective PBL can be, not by reading the articles, lists, and such, but by hearing how the students actually carry out the projects and how they feel about their work.  That is why I chose to watch the video Two Students Solve the Case of the Watery Ketchup by Designing a New Cap. In this video, two students explain how they created a solution to a problem they face every day.  The boys discussed their project and probably did not even realize that they had gone through every one of the seven essentials of Project Based Learning (well maybe not #6).  1. They had a need to know because when they use ketchup and they watery juice comes out at first it is a problem.  2. They had a driving question of why does this happen and how can we stop it from happening? 3. The two students had a voice and choice because the project was relevant to them.  4. They were able to use 21st Century devices such as CAD (computer aided design) and a 3D printer to create a new top for the ketchup bottles. 5. Obviously there was inquiry and innovation all throughout their creative process.  The two had to figure out what was causing the watery ketchup in order to design a new cap for it.  6.  Feedback and revision were not really discussed in the video, but they probably did not get the perfect cap on the first try.  Lastly, 7. the boys created the video I watched in order to present their work publicly.

In order to create effect projects for the students, it is necessary for the teacher to know what motivates her students.  PBL: What Motivates Students Today is an excellent video to gain insight to what the children are thinking about while they are working.  The first student said he enjoys when the teacher congratulates him on his good work.  This ties into PBL because at the end of the project, students are able to show off their work to other students and have them enjoy and applaud their work.  This also pushes the children to have higher quality work because they know not just the teacher will be viewing their project.  Another student said she was motivated by the image she had of her future.  She wants to be successful and have a family and that is what makes her want to do well in school.  As mentioned in the 4 Cs, Career and Life Skills are greatly improved upon by using the Project Based Learning method of teaching.  Other students said they were motivated by positive reinforcements such as food or prizes, while another mentioned the negative reinforcement of being grounded.  In order for him to be able to play sports or go swimming, he had to do well in school.  There are many ways that students are motivated and is the teachers job to figure out what motivates each one of the students and use it to teach effectively.

The last video I watched is called the Wing Project: Crafting a Driving Question.  A driving question is number two on the list of essentials for Project Based Learning.  Good Project Based Learning teachers are teachers that can pose quality driving questions.  One man in the video said, "[a] a good driving question sets up a process of inquiry the students are interested in, and guides them towards how they're going to the work and what kind of work they are going to have to produce in order to answer the question."  Recently, in a few of my education classes (including EDM 310), we have started learning how to write lesson plans and it is important to include a driving question in the plan.  Sometimes it is difficult to word exactly what one wants students to learn, but if the teacher uses what she knows about what motivates her students, it should get easier as it goes.

Project #14

This week, my EDM 310 group created a lesson plan for a 3rd grade English class! The lesson is to help the students better understand the main components of a story and use their imagination and creativity to create a story of their own.  The lesson for this is in the Project Based Learning Format where the students will be put into groups in order to create a story using StoryBoardThat.com! Check out our Google Site to see the lesson plan, calendar, checklist, and rubrics for this project.

Special Assignment

Hi, my name is Ellen Dunn and I have been addicted to my cell phone for about eight years now.  I got my first cell phone when I was 12 because my mom found it easier for all the kids to have cell phones rather than a house phone.  It fit our busy schedule and we were always able to contact her or my dad.  And my first phone did have a camera on it.  Freshman year of high school, I go the Envy 2, the one with the full keyboard.  The full keyboard was just awesome for this. That is when I became a texting fiend.  I got my first smart phone my junior year, all my friends had one before me, so boy was I pumped!  I had the Samsung Fascinate and I had access to all my social media sites through the apps.  I got in trouble more than once for texting in class, but I still did it.  I rarely payed attention because I was ALWAYS one my phone. I still have a problem with being on my phone in my classes.  It is extremely distracting and I will catch myself out at dinner with a group and I am still just always on my phone.

The statistics Dr. Strange posted to the blog for this assignment were not at all shocking to me.  Here is what he posted:

 A recent study by Zogby Analytics reports several interesting findings regarding young people aged 18 - 24:

1. 87% say their smartphone never leaves their side.
2. 80% say the very first thing they do in the morning is reach for their smartphone.
3. 78% say they spend 2 or more hours per day using their smartphone.
4. 68% say they would prefer to use their smartphone instead of their laptop or personal computer for personal use.
5. 91% say that having a camera on their smartphone is important (61% very important)
6. 87% say they use their smartphone camera at least weekly. 59% use their smartphone camera at least every other day. 44% use their smartphone camera for still or motion picture taking every day.

I'm all for students using iPads in the classroom but I think that phones are a little harder to integrate because I think they are more distracting than the iPads. Plus, on the iPads, there are ways to keep kids locked into certain apps.

However, there could be some interesting ways to have children use cell phones for learning. They could use phones for:

• Dictionaries
• Research
• Taking pictures of real life examples of what they are learning about in class
• Educational games and apps
• Notes
• Recording lessons

Having the cell phones would help students become better learners if they can stay focused.  I also think that it is good for the children to be introduced to cell phones and how to use the properly and responsibly.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

I found Randy Pausch's Last Lecture extremely inspiring.  He had a lot to offer about teaching and learning.  Pausch used his humor and life lessons to explain how he chased his childhood dreams then went on to enable others to chase their own dreams.  There were a few topics that really stood out to me in his lecture about chasing dreams; they were have something to bring to the table, fundamentals, head fakes.
In the beginning of the video Pausch said always have something to bring to the table.  This really stood out to me, especially with the past few assignments in EDM 310 being group work.  I use to dread doing group work because not every one brought something to the table and more often than not I did most of the work.  Recently, my EDM group has showed me that group work does not have to be such a nightmare when everyone does their part. This ties into the next point made in the video: fundamentals.  Pausch told a story about his first football coach not bringing a football to their practice.  The anecdote went a little something like this (I'm paraphrasing):

On the first day of practice, my coach showed up and he did not bring a football to the practice. Everyone was really confused and we were asking how we were going to learn to play football with no ball.  My coach asked, "how many players on the football field at one time?" The answer being 22, then he asked, "how many players have the ball at any given time?" The answer to that question was one.  Then he told us, "today we will focus on the other 21 players knowing what they are doing."

I think this is a great lesson, first, because I really love football, second, because the ball carrier cannot do his job well if those without the ball do not know how to do their job properly.  From here, Pausch explained that having kids learn to play football is not actually about playing football at all.  It is what he calls a head fake.  A head fake is when the point of teaching something fun or exciting to kids is actually teaching them harder lessons.  The lesson in football being working together and socializing the children.  This is important in the classroom.  A teacher must find ways to teach the kids that capture their interest, that has relevance to their lives outside of the classroom.  
Pausch taught me about teaching and learning through these three topics.  In teaching and learning, one must always have something to bring to the table.  Teaching and learning require putting effort into one's work.  It is valuable to explain that everyone has something to offer if they put in the time and effort.  Teaching and learning also require fundamentals.  It is difficult for one to continue on with his education or aide another is his education without having the necessary fundamentals.  Lastly, by using head fakes, the teacher can teach students new and difficult tasks by making them think they are learning something else.

We All Become Learners

Until recently, I always thought it was a little ridiculous for younger students to be working with iPads, Mac books, and other forms of technology in the classroom. What does a first grader need with an iPad, right? Wrong. The world is changing, technology is constantly evolving and updating and those that wish to be relevant to the future of society need to be able to keep up. In EDM 310, we, as college students, are doing very similar projects as some elementary school classes are doing in the area around us. No, we aren't behind and no, they aren't super technologically advanced; we just did not have the same resources available to us when we were children in elementary school. It does mean, though, that we will have to work harder to get a hang of the technology we will be using in the classroom because the children do have such a wonderful grasp on the technology they use in the classroom.

The videos this week were a series of teachers explaining different ways in which they incorporate technology in their classroom.  The first staring Michele Bennett showing how to make a QR code online. She said that children offer use the recordings they turn into QR codes to help them learn to read. I think this is a fabulous idea, and the kids can even make their own QR codes because it is so simple. 

The next few videos feature Ginger Tuck. She discussed using iPads in the reading centers as well as using Poplet and AVL. The children use the iPads to record themselves reading then listen to the recording to check for mistakes. I really like the use of iPads in teaching children to read. My nephew told me this weekend about how at his school they use iPads to listen to books and how much he enjoys using them. Next Tuck explains Poplet. Poplet is an app that allows the children to create a web of information about the book they are reading. Lastly, Ginger Tuck talks about the way her kindergarteners learn using AVL. AVL stands for Alabama Virtual Library, this is a place where children can use a kid's friendly search engine to do research. The links that show up when a child searching for something have videos most of the time and audio so that the child can learn about different, she says, ways of transportation, for example. 

Next, I learned about Discovery Education Board Builder, from Tammy Shirley. This is another tool that helps improve children's reading and writing skills. They can also write their own stories and search for pictures or videos using the Discovery Ed database. I think it is really important for the kids to learn how to do their own research because it is something they will be doing their whole life. 

After watching videos about Discovery Education, I watched a couple of videos with Mrs. Tassin. In the first, she had two boys show off a board they had made online about whales after they took a 'virtual field trip'. The boys also explained to the viewers how they did their own research for the board! The next video, Mrs. Tassin showed off a group of girl that had used board builder. Their board convinced their audience to save their loose change for The Haven, which is an animal shelter. Mrs. Tassin again asked the students to share the resources they used in making the board. These projects not only allow children to use technology and conduct research, it also allows them to share the sites they find useful with one another, further broadening their concept what they know the Internet to be. 

Lastly, I watched Dr. Strange has a conversation with Michele Bennett and Elizabeth Davis. The theme of the video is that we all become learners. "It's teachers teaching students, and it's students teaching students, and it's students teaching [teachers]," Michele Bennett explains. This is just a reiteration of basically everything in EDM, everyone is a learner. And also everyone is a teacher. I expect to learn so much from my students when I become a teacher. I really enjoy the dynamics of everyone, including the teacher, learning in a classroom. It provides an atmosphere that encourages asking questions and finding things out and, to me, that's exciting.

PBL: Real World Application (Project #9)

Four Videos (Part B)