Blog Post 10

Do You Teach, or Do You Educate?

I really enjoyed watching this video; it really made me think about why I really chose to be an education major. There is nothing that I love more in this world than having the opportunity to help people. God has blessed me tremendously, and has given me a strong passion to help people. I have had so many opportunities over the past years to travel around whether it is across the world or across the United States and do what I love and that is to minister to people. I feel that teaching is the perfect place for my passion.
As a teacher, I do not just want to be an enforcer of rules, or a great explainer of math, but I want to be someone who students look up to, feel comfortable to share with, and someone who inspires them to learn. I want to be a teacher that students will look back on and think, “I really learned a lot from her.” I do not just want to teach my students facts; I want to teach them to love to learn and to never stop. I enjoyed the video very much because it made me think about why I really want to teach.

Tom Johnson’s Don’t Let Them Take the Pencils Home!

After reading this blog, at first, I was very confused. But, after exploring the blog a little bit, I read that it is actually set in 1897 and is a story following a man named Tom Johnson. Tom wants to get every student to own a pencil, but he is having a hard time doing so. Even though this story is set in 1897, it deals with problems that today’s schools face. In this post, Tom Johnson is dealing with a woman named Gertrude who has a problem with pencils being taken home because she thinks that the students are using them as entertainment. Gertrude’s main point is that children who take home pencils usually score lower on standard tests. But, she isn’t seeing Tom’s point. Tom is making the argument that pencils can be used to help students learn and that entertainment isn’t really a bad thing. Students can use the pencils to play hangman, or they can use them to write or do educational things. Tom says that he is keeping students interested by giving them the pencils and that the pencils will help in the long run. I think that this is a very creative idea by author and teacher John T. Spencer. He addresses present day problems while including the past. I really enjoyed this blog.

C4T 3

"A Journey in TEFL"

For the past two weeks I Have been reading and commenting on Eva Buyuksimkesyan’s blog “A Journey in TEFL”. In her post, Ms. Buyuksimkesyan tells of activities that she uses with her students in hope that her viewers can use them with their students. In the first post I read on her blog, she shared some activities that she used when teaching her students how to describe. Out of the five activities that Ms. Buyuksimkesyan shared, I like her “Ideal Holiday Destination” activity the best. During this activity, 10 postcards of holiday destinations are displayed. The teacher will have the students walk around and choose a postcard and then have them go back to their seat and write a letter to a friend telling them about them why they should choose the destination for their next holiday. In my comment to Ms. Buyuksimkesyan, I told her that I really enjoyed reading her post and that I thought the activities that she mentioned were very fun and creative. I also told her that I really liked her activity “Ideal Holiday Destination”, and that I would definitely be using with my future students. A few days after I commented on her post, Ms. Buyuksimkesyan wrote me back telling me that she had checked out my EDM blog and that she was really glad that I chose to comment on her blog.

In the second post I read, Ms. Buyuksimkesyan tells about how her students were having problems understanding the meaning of sentences. She talks about an exercise that she gives the students to helps them practice understanding the meaning of things. Ms. Buyuksimkesyan states that, at the end of the exercise, she put a quote which she then turned into another exercise. In the exercise, she omitted the modal verbs to have the students fill in the gap to give them practice. In her post, she includes many ideas of exercises that would be great for teachers to practice with their students. I really liked Ms. Buyuksimkesyan’s wordle exercise idea. In this exercise, she took a quote and turned it into a wordle, much like the wordle we did at the beginning of the semester, and had the students try to guess the quote. In my comment, I told Ms. Buyuksimkesyan thank you for sharing her great ideas. I told her that I really liked her Wordle activity idea, and that I would definitely be using it with my future students. I really enjoyed reading Ms. Buyuksimkesyan’s blog, she shares so many fun and creative ideas. I will definitely continue to keep up with her blog.

Blog Post 9

What I’ve Learned This Year (2008-2009)

In the first blog post, Mr. McClung gave his reflection of his first year of teaching. He listed several things that he had learned through his first year. The first point he made was that he learned how to read the crowd. McClung stated that when he first started teaching he was too worried about pleasing his superiors that he lost his students while teaching. McClung says that the delivery of the lesson is not what matters, what’s important is if the students get it or not. McClung states that it is important to be flexible. Things are not always going to go as planned in the lesson plan, but it is important that the teacher knows how to move on with the lesson even when mistakes and sudden problems occur. McClung makes a point that it is important to communicate in the work place. When something is going wrong, or if a problem arises with a fellow teacher, it is important to confront them with the situation and talk it through. McClung encourages teachers to be responsible. I love the statement that McClung makes “Our job as teachers is to simply pick them up after they fail, dust them off, and encourage them to try again.” He also points out that we should not be afraid to use technology. Technology is our friend and it is there to make the job easier. McClung states that it is very important that a teacher listens to their students. It is important that the teachers really get to know the students that they are teaching and listen to what they have to say. Students should feel like they can come to the teacher when they need help. Lastly, McClung states that teachers should never stop learning. Teachers should continue to learn and adapt their teaching style to what works best with students even after they enter the classroom. I think Mr. McClung made great points in his post that all teachers can learn from. I really learned a lot by reading Mr. McClung’s blog post.


What I Learned This Year (2009-2010)

In Mr. McClung’s second post, he again gave a reflection of what he learned throughout the year. He also again had the same type of post and listed different points about what he learned. The first thing he said was that it is important to adapt. He said that it is important to never get too comfortable and that change is good. The next point he made was about the path least travelled. In this section he talked about teachers not using their opinions in the classroom but to let students be independent thinkers. The third point he made he said was the most important: find your school mom. What he meant by this was to find someone who could take you in and show you the ropes, so to speak. The next thing he talked about was that teachers should check their egos at the door. It is not important how good you think you are, what’s important is how well the students are learning. It is not our job to feel smart, but to give students the best opportunity to succeed. The next piece of advice he gave was to not be a control freak. He says that it is okay to want to be in control because a teacher should have control over their classroom. But, teachers can’t control every little thing that goes on. The next thing he talks about is to not lose sight of what is important. Mr. McClung talks about his problems with his school’s administration and how it was affecting him. But, he says that focusing on the problems was hurting his students because he wasn’t completely concentrated on them. The last thing he said was that it’s what you learn after you know it all that matters. What he meant by this was that, even though we might know a lot, we will still always have a long way to go before we know it all. I really liked this post and I feel like I learned a lot from what Mr. McClung had to say.

Project 13

Blog Post 8

This Is How We Dream

In part one of the video, Richard Miller starts by expressing his love for books. He talks about how he grew up in a house that was filled with books. He states that he “dreamed of a career involving working with books.” Miller stated “the result of a career working with books is a book.”The book that Richard Miller wrote is now sold on Amazon for 59 cents. Miller goes on to talk about the differences of writing today compared to writing in his younger years. We do not need libraries or pen and paper; most of the information we need we do not even have to pick up a book to find because it is all on the internet.

Miller mentioned that he was asked to write an article in response to the one year anniversary of the killings at Virginia Tech. He stated that he did not even have to go to the library to find information, all the information that he needed and used was found on the internet. Richard Miller goes on to talk about how the internet is great and fast way to post his lectures. He states that without the internet, it could take up to two years to be published. With the internet, Miller, as well as anyone else, can post their lectures within just a few hours.

In the second part of the video, Miller talks about the building at the University that he has taught in for the past sixteen year. He states that it is a building “designed for automobiles”, because the parking lot is in the center of the building. He goes on to talk about the “green building” that he and his collaborator had created which would combine the best of the Humanities and the best of the Sciences. This “green building” would be sustainable and solar powered. Miller states that the internet is a great way to share dreams such as his “green building” with the world and to get the ideas out there. I believe that I am prepared to write with multimedia and I believe that my students will be able to do this as well.




Blog Post #12 by Carly Pugh

I found Carly Pugh’s blog post very interesting. Her idea was so cool! In her blog post, she creates an assignment in which the students must create a youtube playlist which included ten videos that describe what the student’s philosophy as a teacher is. She gives many ideas of what types of videos the student can add to their playlist. Carly even made her own playlist in which she stated, “Good teachers teach by example”. She also left many links in her blog to help the student understand why the assignment was created. Carly’s assignment is much like Richard Miller’s because they both show how the internet can be used to obtain knowledge.



EDM310 Is Different

I really enjoyed watching the Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies. I thought that both videos made great points and were pretty funny. The thing that stuck out to me the most in the chipper series was the subject of procrastination. I used to be the worst when it came to procrastination, but I have learned that procrastination is a huge no-no in EDM310. I have never been behind but I sure would hate to be behind because I feel like it would be very difficult to catch up. As far as the video EDM310 for Dummies, I feel that I could be in that video sometimes. If I were to create a video for this class, I would like to create a video titled “How to Survive EDM310”. I have a lot of advice that future EDM310 students could benefit from.


Learn to Change, Change to Learn

This video is about the effect technology has on education the way students learn. The people in the video make points about how kids are using social networks, cell phones, and other things to collect data and do research. The point that was made that I really agree with is the man that said that the point is not teaching kids facts that they need to memorize, the point is to teach them to know how to figure things out. Some of the other people mentioned that the classroom needs to be a meeting place, a community, for students to share and learn ideas.

Short Movie Project 11

Project 12- Book Trailer

C4T 2

For the past few weeks I have been reading and commenting on blog posts written by Dorothy Burt. Dorothy Burt lives in New Zealand. I really enjoyed reading her post and found her points very interesting. In the first post that I read, Ms. Burt talks about a series of articles that were sent that talked about school serving breakfast to students. In her post, Ms. Burt states “the paper informs us that numbers of kiwi students attend school with no breakfast. They also inform us that breakfast is necessary for learning to occur.” She also mentioned in the same week, “we have had agitation provoked by the media about schools stating that access to technology is necessary for students to learn.” Dorothy Burt stated that thinking about arguments made her think about shoes. She then began to talk about how when she was in primary school she never wore shoes. She says that these arguments are like her saying she needed shoes to learn.

At the end of her post, Ms. Burt asks her viewers of their opinion. She asked of the viewers experience with shoes and school and if they thought that it affected their learning in any way. In my comment to Ms. Burt, I explained to her that where I lived a dress code was given to students in which they had to follow. I wrote that even though I was required to wear a school uniform, I feel that shoes have no influence on learning. I stated that even though I did not like the idea of uniforms when I was in school, if students are all dressed a certain way, then some students will not feel left out and it will provide a more comfortable learning environment for them.

The second post that I read, Ms. Burt posted a video on the Teacher Dashboard. The video explained what the Teacher Dashboard was, how teachers use it, and the positive things about using it. The teacher dashboard uses Google docs to help teachers organize their lesson plans, share their documents with students, and allows teachers to keep an eye on what their students are doing. The Teacher Dashboard is very helpful to teachers and students because it allows them to access their documents and work from any computer.

I commented on Ms. Burt’s post telling her how neat that I thought the Teacher Dashboard was. I told her it was not until I started EDM 310 that I realized how many useful tools that Google had to offer. I stated of how I have found Google docs to be so helpful this semester and that I use it very often. I told her that I hoped to be able to use the Teacher Dashboard when I get in the classroom and that I thought it was a wonderful tool.

Blog Post 7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Dr. Randy Pausch led an incredible life. His “Last Lecture” series about achieving your childhood dreams is one of his many great accomplishments. “The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” is a lecture that includes great personal stories and many different life lessons. Dr. Pausch was and continues to be an inspiration to many.

At the beginning of the lecture, Dr. Pausch states that even though he has cancer and knows that he will soon pass away, that fact is not important in the lecture. By “introducing the elephant in the room” Dr. Pausch catches and holds the audience’s attention. After this, Pausch goes on to discuss his own childhood dreams. His list includes being in zero gravity, playing in the National Football League, authoring an article in the World Book Dictionary, being Captain Kirk, being a guy that won big stuffed animals in the amusement park, and being an imagineer with Disney. What is truly awesome is that Dr. Pausch accomplished almost all of these goals.

Next in the lecture, Pausch goes on to explain how either he accomplished these goals or how they changed. Starting with being in zero gravity, Pausch figured out that NASA had a contest where students can submit proposals as a team to ride the “vomit comet.” Well, Pausch had put together a team of students and went as a reporter and accomplished his goal of being in zero gravity. Pausch never did play in the National Football League, but stated that he learned more from that goal than any other. Football taught him enthusiasm, discipline, and how to handle criticism. Dr. Pausch did get to author an article in the World Book Dictionary because of his work with Virtual Reality. Pausch edited his being like Captain Kirk goal to simply “meeting Captain Kirk.” William Shatner happened to write a book with a co-author about the actual physics and science of Star Trek and Pausch helped create a virtual world for their cause. You can tell from how fondly he remembered that moment that meeting Shatner was a great experience for Pausch. Pausch admits that his goal of winning giant stuffed animals was a little “mundane,” but he seemed proud that he accomplished it. What Pausch seemed most proud about was the fact that he became an imagineer. This goal took the longest time and Pausch even says that he thought this was the most difficult to accomplish. Pausch used his success as a Virtual Reality specialist to become an imagineer and he helped design such things as the Aladdin and Pirates of the Caribbean rides.

Pausch talked a lot about his own personal goals and how he achieved them. But what he was really talking about was the way you live your life. Pausch accomplished great goals and has a great story. But what is most impressive is not that he accomplished most everything he set out to do, but that every person who talked about him had nice things to say. That feedback from others is proof to Pausch’s statement that it’s not about goals, it’s about the way you live your life. Pausch led his life the right way, and had a great life that is an inspiration to many.

Timetoast Timeline Instruction Project 9b

Project 10 - Personal Learning Network

I used Symbaloo for my PLN. Symbaloo made it very easy for me to add and organize all of my favorite websites that I use for school and entertainment. The University of South Alabama Homepage,EDM 310 Class Blog, Blogger.com, Gmail, and Youtube are websites that I added to my PLN that I most frequently use for school purposes. I also added websites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,and blogs that I read on a daily basis to my PLN. My PLN looks kind of empty right now, but I do plan to add a lot more sites to it.

C4K Summaries

C4K 1
In this C4K I was assigned to Sarah, a student who wrote about her desire to be a teacher, have a million kittens, and live in a mansion. Sarah's first post mostly had just simple sentences which made for an easy and interesting read. I told her that I too planned on becoming a teacher and shared her enthusiasm in some of the things that she mentioned, including being shy and helping the elderly. Sarah was very sweet and even wrote back saying, "Brianne Woods It is so cool that we are alike in ways."

C4K 2
The second C4K that I was assigned was actually the same girl, Sarah. This time, she posted a Wordle, much like the one we did in class, in the shape of a musical note. Her Wordle had hot pink letters on a black background which really made the pink stand out. I commented and told her that it looked awesome and unique and that pink was my favorite color.

C4K 3
The third C4K I was assigned was for a blog from a girl named Alex. In her blog she tells about how she went to a theme park with her family. She didn't like waking up early to go, but she did have a lot of fun and even said she ate a good burger from a restaurant. I commented and told her that I also love going to theme parks and told her she did a good job on her blog.

C4K 4
In this C4K assignment, I was assigned to comment on the St. Elmo's Explorers Blog. These students were fortunate enough to have Lucy Buffet donate iPad's to their school. I thanked and congratulated the students and told them that I was excited that they had the opportunity to use new technology for educational purposes.

Blog Post 6

The Networked Student
By: Wendy Drexler

This video is about a student at the 21st century high school. This video shows how students of the 21st century can use the internet to help them learn. The student uses Google Scholar to find websites to help him get information that he will need for his class. The students also have blogs where they can share their thoughts and have discussions with other classmates. The hope of the teachers at the 21st high school is that students will learn a lot by using the tools on the internet and that they will continue to use them even after they graduate.
Students need a teacher to be there to instruct and encourage as they learn. Even though most of the students work is individual and has to be done on their own, the teacher’s job is still the same: she is there to help the students learn and answer questions when needed.
I feel that I am ready to teach a networked student, and I feel that it would be fun to experiment with teaching a “network student.” However, I do not really like the idea of students not being taught in the classroom because I think that students can learn better when a teacher is present to assist them. My PLN is similar to the student's PLE because it contains all my academic pages as well as the social network sites I most frequently visit.


A Seventh Grader’s Personal Learning Environment

This girl seems to really know what she is talking about when it comes to getting around on the internet. She knows how to use the internet and how to apply it to her school work. I like how she is very organized and has all of the important sites she uses in specific places on her computer screen; she has a good system and she likes using it.