Blog Post 14

Go Ed is a website for teachers to get ideas from. This website provides teachers with a 101 resources to find games, rubrics and more. Each subject has individual tabs so that you do not have to search for a certain one. They also give you links to eBook for every subject. Go to this website and choose a subject and a game. Describe why you choose this. You can also choose a game that is multi-subject. Do not forget to check them out on Facebook and to follow them on Pinterest. If you would like you can comment and add a helpful website that you have found on their page. I choose to select as English as my subject of choice for now. I selected the Audio Flashcards: Family. This game not only lets the students hear the words but they can also see pictures to represent the word with an image. You also have an option of English, French, German and Spanish. Once you select the language you want to hear it the spelling of the words pop up also. I think this is a great feature because the students can not only learn the words in English but also in other languages once they have mastered the word. This game could also be used for students that speak one of the other languages other than English to learn the English language.

C4T November

This week I was assigned to comment on Tony Baldasatro's blog. In this posted a quote from an email he had written. The quote was "Just because kids will work and hard and do whatever we ask them to do doesn't [automatically] mean we should be asking them to do what is is we are asking them to do."

In my comment I stated who I was and where I am attending school. I said that this is a great quote and that as teacher we need to remember why we are having the students do whatever it is we assign them. I also said that we need to make sure ever assignment has a purpose and this quote is a great reminder of just that. I thanked him for sharing.

C4K November

11/10/2013
This week I was assigned to comment on Kayden's blog post who is in the eighth grade from New Zealand.
Kayden wrote this blog post about rock climber and the success. He described how he was trying to climb a rock. He described the climate as he was trying to do this. He also described how his body was reacting once he began to climb.

In my comment I said who I was and that I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I said that I thought he did a great job of being descriptive.

11/17/2013

This week I was assigned to Sarah's blog post. She wrote about her experience about auditioning for the junior orchestra.  She also provided videos of her and her sister named Hannah. She described her responsibilities she was given once she had made it onto the orchestra. 

In my comment, I told her who I was and where I attend school. I also told her I really enjoyed her post and the videos that she had provided. I said that her and Hannah did a fantastic job. 

C4T #5

C4T #5

This week I was assigned to watch video about transgender. A child presents the book When Kayla Was Kyle by Amy Fabrikant and why this book should be available to students.  Within the video, he gives the definition of a transgender and examples. Then he goes on to tell the story within the book which is about a boy who got picked on for playing with dolls. After having his parents accept him be started dressing like a girl. This book addresses a topic that is not discussed often but needs to be. Some students may feel this way but their peers pick on them instead of reassuring them it is okay to be different.

In my comment I said I thought this was a very interesting video. He pointed out great reasons for this book to be in schools. I said that this book not only addresses transgender but also bullying which is a major issue.  I stated that I liked how the book encourages students to be who they are.

C4K October

10/13/2013
I commented on a students blog who was discussing about the events in a book and why the characters made the decision they did. They also mentioned the struggle the characters where going through.

 In my comment I stated who I was and that I am a student from the University of South Alabama in EDM 310. I said I thought they did a great job at describing how the house is full and it is going to effect the parents. I told them to keep up the good work.  I gave them a link to my blog.

10/18/2013
This week I commented on Aylin's blog, who is a seventh grader. In this post she describes her science class and her teacher. She states how she really likes her teacher and enjoys the class.

In my comment I stated who I was and that I am a student at the University of South Alabama in EDM310. I told her I could really tell how much she enjoyed having this teacher. I also said it sounds like she is excited about the school year and it seems like she is going to like this class. I said hopefully she will be able to take some of the skills Mrs.Hartooni will teach her and apply them to other subjects.
I gave her a link to my blog.


11/03/2013
This week I commented on Madison P.'s  blog post that had fun facts about pumpkins. She states where the word pumpkin comes from and that pumpkins are actually fruits. She tells us that Illinois grows the most pumpkins out of the entire United States. She gives us a few more facts about pumpkins and the largest one ever grown.

In my comment, I said that she did a great job of telling fun facts about pumpkins. I also said how I learned a lot by reading her blog.

PLN Project #2

For my personal learning network, I put the websites I most frequently visit and some learning website I viewed from this class. I think this is a great tool for everyone to have because it makes navigating through the internet easy. I feel that my future students will be able to create and use PLNs in the classroom and at home.

Project 12B

Here is a link to the Google Site for our lesson plan.

Project 11

To collaborate about Project 12B without meeting face to face our group choose to open a Google Document. Within this document we discussed  how we were going to present our lesson.  Google Drive is a great way to communicate and collaborate with fellow classmates. Using this tool, we were able to communicate while we were doing our daily routines. It will email each of the group members notifying us that someone has added to the document or project. I plan to use this tool in within my classroom because it gives the students more freedom to communicate on their own time. It also can show who did what within the document so the participation from each group member can be seen.

Blog Post 13

Shukla Bose: Teaching one child at a time

Summarized by: Chelsea Calvert 

Shukla Bose is a woman who went to the Indian slums to start making a difference in the education system they have. She has never been educated how to teach but she has been in the corporate word for twenty six years. In 2003, she started the Parikrma Humanity Foundation out of her own house. They started by walking through the slums and visiting the children and the parents. They realized that most of the children did not go to school. They tried convincing the parents to send their children to school. Once they got back to Shukla Bose's house to begin a plan they were overwhelmed with the numbers of children that should be going to school but do not. The number of students that attend school but cannot read or even do basic math. It was then they realized they are focusing on one child at a time. They started a school in a slum of 70,000 people living below the poverty line. The school was on the rooftop of two story building that was only partially covered. The school started with one hundred sixty five students. Now, after six years they have built four schools and a junior college with one thousand one hundred students that are attending. Their goal is to prepare these students to be educated and be able to function in this chaotic world. They teach every student how to speak English within about three and half months. They also chose one the most difficult curriculums and their students excel in it. The students are also excelling in sports.

The schools not only address the student’s education but also the parents. The parent attendance to school meetings is over eighty percent. At first the parents would sign in by using their thumb print but their children taught them how to sign their names. Some of the fathers had begun to attend the school. They had some mothers approach them about wanting to learn how to read and write. They school formed an after school program for these mothers to attend to educate themselves. She says that 98% of the fathers are alcoholics who they send some of them to a facility to get sober. Once the father has gotten sober, they help him get a job so that he does not relapse.  The school as also taught some fathers about hygiene and how to prepare meals. Some of them work at the school and cook for the students. This type of job gives the father a sense of importance. The school also has programs for the older children in the families so that they will attend and the younger ones will have a way to school.

Bose addresses a few myths in her discussion. One of them is that the children from the slums cannot integrate with mainstream. She shows a video of a student who was selected by Duke University to participate in a program and was sent to a place that had many different cultures. In the video, the girl discusses how much she loved socializing with people of a different race or class then she was. She said normally she would have never approached people that were not in her social class or of her race. Once she had spoken to many different people she realized they are all the same they were all very friendly and could interact with her.

Shukla Bose shared a great testimony that anyone who has the will to make a change can. Within six short years she has help build four schools and a junior college that in itself is amazing. She not only educates the students but also the parents. I think it was a great of them to start an after school program for the mothers to become a part of the learning process. Helping the parents and getting them involved with education will benefit the students. The parents are more likely to make sure their children go to school and get an education if they are excited about it too. This program is also changing the whole demeanor of households by helping the fathers get sober and finding new jobs. They are also teaching the fathers how to cook and how to set up their kitchens. This not only gives the father a new skill but also gives them the knowledge to share to their spouse. They also provide programs for the older students to ensure they will come to school along with their younger siblings. This is something I would have never thought about doing because normally the action of the older siblings does not affect the actions of the younger children. It was a great idea for them to impalement a program to keep the older students engaged in school.  

Summarized by: Keri Brown

Shane Koyczan is an amazing man who told his story through poetry. Koyczan began by talking about how as a child we are told to "stand up for yourself," but that is a hard thing to do when you don't even know who you are. He says that we are expected to define ourselves at such a young age and if we didn't others did it for us by calling us names like geek, fatty, slut, or fag. "What do you want to be when you grow up" is not a fair question because it doesn't allow kids to be what they already are, kids.

Mr. Koyczan talks about his childhood by saying:
At age 8, he wanted to be a marine biologist.
At age 9, he saw JAWS and said no thank you.
At age 10, he was told his parents left because they didn't want him.
At age 11, he wanted to be left alone.
At age 12, he wanted to die.
At age 13, he wanted to kill a kid.
At age 14, he was asked to seriously consider a career path.
When he told them he wanted to be a writer, they told him to come up with something realistic. They told him to come up with something and then told him what he couldn't be. He was basically told to accept the identity that others would give him. His dreams got called names too, silly, foolish, impossible, but yet he kept dreaming.

During the ages 15-18, he hated himself for becoming the thing he loathed…a bully. At age 19 he wrote, "I will love myself despite the ease with which I learn toward the opposite." He said that "standing up for yourself does not have to mean embracing violence."

Mr. Koyczan talked about one specific time when certain people always wanted his answers for the homework and he wanted friends so he would always give them the answers. One boy would always call him "Yogi Bear" and laugh at his belly. After a while, Shane got fed up with this and when the boy asked for his answers to his homework, he gave him all of the wrong answers. When the boy got his homework back, he looked at Shane mad and puzzled that he had received a zero on this homework assignment. This was just enough satisfaction for Shane.

Shane closes by saying "if you can't see anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror, look closer, or stare a little longer." There is something inside you that made you keep trying despite everyone who told you to quit. He says that you have to believe that those people were wrong. Shane said, "yes, those things did hurt him, but life is a balancing act that has less to do with pain, and more to do with beauty.

Mae Jemison: Teaching Arts and Sciences Together
Summarized by: Kenesha Brown

Mae Jemison is an American physician and NASA astronaut. She was the first African American woman to travel into space. Jemison had a successful career at NASA; however, she resigned in 1993 to form her own research company. Jemison participated in the Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED) Conference. TED is a global set of conferences owned by a private non-profit organization.
In the video, Mae Jemison explained how arts and sciences should be revitalized. Lewis Carrol quoted “If you don’t much care where you want to get to, then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.” However, Jemison explained that it does matter which direction to take. What we do now is critically important to our future. The world is built off of abstract ideas that people think of today. Knowledgeable ideas came to play as early as the 50’s. The subjects that are now invented, internet, high definition, etc., was thought of and mentioned during the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.
Jemison explained that during the 60’s people believed in hope for the future. They thought that everyone could participate in giving creative ideas. The tools people think is “hot or cool” now are based off the ideas from the 60’s.
On her trip to space, Jemison took three items with her. She took an Alvin Allen poster of a dancer performing a dance piece called Cry, a Badu statue that was given to her by a women’s society, and a certificate from the Chicago Public School students to work and improve science and math. People found it strange that Jemison took the items she chose. However, she felt as if each of the three things she took with her represented human creativity. Human creativity is what allowed them to conceive, create and launch the rocket into space.
Albert Einstein stated that “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true arts and sciences.” The differences of arts and sciences are deconstructive. People look at science as deconstructive because often times it is something that has to be pulled apart to understand. However, Jemison explained that science provides an understanding of universal experiences; whereas, art provides a universal understanding. People must realize that understanding, resources, and will are the cause of the outcome. Ideas and innovation should be driven from a person’s intellect.
Jemison stated that ideas should be thought of as potential energy. Nothing will happen until someone takes a risk. I believe that the arts and sciences play an important role in critical thinking for students. As teachers, we should to continue to stay ahead on a technological standpoint. However, we must remind our students that inventions come from people who are not afraid of sharing their ideas and failing. Students need to learn the importance of embracing culture. They need to understand that there are many ways of viewing situations. Therefore, as educators, we need to teach our students how to accept abstract ideas.

Project 12 Part A

Project 15

My Lesson Plan #3 

This lesson plan is for a third grade social studies class that will last for one week. The students will learn about what civil rights are and they civil rights movement. The driving question is: "What is the importance of the historical events and locations within the civil rights movement?"

 The students will get to pick the location of the topic they want to discuss and make a presentation about it.  They will do research and make a Google presentation to share with the other students in class. Throughout research and working on projects, students will break into groups to practice their presentations and later revise any critiques their peers provided. After making any necessary revisions, the students will present their projects to the class and then write personal reflections to post along with their presentation on the class blog. 

 

Blog Post 12

Changing Education Paradigms

Summarized by: Kenesha Brown

In Sir Ken Robinson’s video, Changing Education Paradigm, he explains how every country is reforming public schools.  The main reason why public education is reforming is because of economics and culture. With economics, people are trying to figure out a way to educate children in the 21st century, given that people cannot anticipate what the economy will look like at the end of the week (Robinson). With culture, on the other hand, people are trying to figure out a way to educate children so that they will have some type of cultural identity. However, where the problem lies with education is educators are trying to meet the future by doing what they have done in the past.

A lot of kids are being alienated because they don’t know the purpose of their education.  Robinson explains how when he was younger  he was taught to go to school, work hard and in the long run, hard work pays off; however, kids these days don’t believe in that. As educators, we have to raise standards, but the current system is designed and conceived for a different era. The educational system is conceived in the intellectual culture of enlightenment. Robinson tells us that before the 18th century there was no form of public education. Mostly wealthy families could afford schooling. Public education gives compulsory to everyone. It is funded by taxation and free at the point of delivery. On the contrary, a lot of people objected to public education. They felt as if it was impossible for poor and work class families’ children to benefit from getting an education. People believe that these children were incapable of learning how to read and write.

Robinson explains how public education base kids’ academic ability off of deducting reasoning and knowledge of the classic. Children who are smart are considered academic; children who are not smart are considered non-academic. However, non-academic children don’t know how brilliant they really are. Robinson views the model of education as trouble. He explains that the modern epidemic of education is ADHD; however, this is not an epidemic. “Children are being medicated routinely” (Robinson).In today’s society, kids are living in the most stimulating time in the history on the earth. They have a more advance perspective of how technology works. Instead, they are being force with information. Their attention is being pulled away from every technological platform.  Lecturing is becoming boring.  Children are getting through education by being anesthetized. Instead of shutting students’ senses off and deadening them to what’s happening teachers should be waking them up.

In addition, Robinson tells us that education is modeled on the interest of industrialization. Schools are being organized as if they are factory lines. Children are being educated in batches, age groups, instead of ability. Robinson explains that the model of education don’t start from the line of mentality; it is about standardization and changing directions.

“Divergent Thinking is not the same as creativity” (Robinson). Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value; whereas, divergent thinking is an essential capacity of creativity. There are a lot of possible ways to find answers. Teacher should encourage students to find creative ways to interpret a question.  Questions can have multiple answers, however, kids are taught there is only one answer and it’s in the back of the book.  They are often told not to look or copy because it is cheating, but outside of schools’ walls, it’s collaborating.  This is because of the gene pool of education.

Sir Ken Robinson made valuable points on how our educational system works. Teachers don’t realize that they are failing our students by not taking advantage of the technological opportunities that is being presented.  Great learning happens in groups. Allowing students to collaborate is the stuff to growth in the classroom. As educators, we need to embrace our stimulating society and apply real world application to our classrooms. Kids have more advanced opportunities that they need to be exposed too. The educational system from the 18th century has no use for this 21st century generation.

The Importance of Creativity by: Ken Robinson 

Summarized by: Chelsea Calvert 

Sir Ken  Robinson believes that as an educator we have to prepare our students for what the world will be like in just a few years even though we ourselves have no idea. He believes that creativity is just as important as literacy. In every school system the arts at the bottom of importance. Mathematics and English are the two most important things in the education system. Art and music are taught but not on a day to day basis like he believes they should be. He refers to the woman that was a choreographer for the production "Cats." He tells us how even she was a child her teacher thought she had a learning disability because she could not sit still and was a distraction to the class. Her mother took her to the doctor to learn that her daughter did not have a disability she only was able to learn when she was active.

I think that Robinson has made a great point in this video. I had never thought about much the arts get over looked. Every student learns in different ways and as an educator it is important to meet the students’ needs whatever they may be. Teachers should incorporate the arts into their classroom. Incorporating the arts in lessons would not be difficult to do.

After watching this video, I think the schools are more focused on trying to catch up with today's technology. It seems as if the schools are putting so much money into technology and having less teachers. The school systems have always been low on funding when it comes to teachers so they will get rid of the art teachers first but to be sure that every student has a personal computer to take home.

I think it is important for students to be technology literate but I think that it is equally important for them to be able to express themselves and be creative. The education system needs to find a way for the students to do both. If the school cannot afford to have a teacher for the arts then the classroom teacher needs to be sure to incorporate it into their lessons. 

How to Escape Education's Death Valley

Summarized by: Keri Brown

Sir Ken Robinson begins by giving us a statistic that states "in some parts of the country 60% of kids drop out of high school, in the Native American community it is 80% of kids." This is a very sad fact to think about in our educational systems. One estimate about this is that if we half that number, that would create a net gain to the US economy over ten years of nearly a trillion dollars. Mr. Robinson explains that American spends enough money on education, America has small class sizes for the most part, and we have hundreds of initiatives to improve education. All of these impacts on education are good, but they are all going in the wrong way.

In this video, Sir Ken Robinson outlines three principles that are crucial for the human mind to flourish and how current education culture works against them. The first principle he discussed was that human beings are naturally different and diverse. The education under the No Child Left Behind Act is based on conformity not diversity. Schools need to start focusing on the arts, humanities, and physical education more rather than just the core subjects. One estimate says that nearly ten percent of kids are being diagnosed ADD and ADHD. Mr. Robinson says that "children are not suffering from psychological condition, but yet childhood itself. Kids prosper best with a broad curriculum which includes all of their interests." The second principle Robinson discussed is curiosity. He says that we are all natural learners, we just need something to spark learning. Teaching is a creative profession, and in this profession we need to mentor, stimulate, provoke, and engage our students. Education is all about learning, and as teachers we have to facilitate learning. Robinson says that standardized test should not be the dominant part of education. They are good, but they are not everything. Standardized tests should support learning, not obstruct it. Instead of curiosity we have a culture of compliance and teachers are encouraged to follow "routine algorithms" rather than to excite that power of imagination and curiosity. The third principle Robinson addressed was that "human life is inherently creative, it's why we all have different resumes." He talked about how we create our lives and we can re-create them. Robinson compared Finland to a state in America by saying that when he was at a conference and someone asked their educational leaders about their dropout rate, they looked funny and stated they do not have a dropout rate because when kids have trouble they get help and they have a very broad curriculum. In the United States of America we need to begin by individualizing education and learning. The responsibility of this should be on the school level to "get the job done." Education is not an industrial process based on mechanics, it is a human system. Sir Ken Robinson ends his discussion by saying that "the culture of the school is essential. The "Death Valley isn't dead, it's dormant. Right beneath the surface are these seeds of possibility waiting for the right conditions to come about." 

I loved watching this discussion. I feel like we have lost sight of the creativity that is necessary in education. Mr. Robinson had so many wonderful and true points. I completely agree that standardized tests are good to have, but they should not be everything. I feel that students learn better when they are interested and actively engaged in what they are learning. I hope to be a creative mentor to my future students.

Project 14

My Lesson Plan #2

This lesson plan is for a third grade math class that will last for three days. The driving question is "What is data and how do you graph it?" The students will learn what data is and research for their own definition on iCurio. They will also learn how to graph data on a bar graph. They will be given a bag of M&M's each for them to separate the bag by colors to collect data. They will have to form a graph of the data they have collected. The students will break up into groups of three and discuss their own definition of data. In groups, they will also practice presenting their graphs to prepare to present in front of the whole class. After all the students have given their presentations they will write a reflection about themselves. The class will discuss as a whole how they thought everyone did and their likes and dislikes of the lesson. 

Blog Post 10

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture 

This video by Randy Pausch has been very eye opening to me. Dr. Pausch is a very inspirational man; even though his life is ending he wants yours to go on. With everything going on his life I do not see how he can be so positive and excited. Dr. Pausch’s last lecture shows us life is what you make of it and knowing that think of what we could make it for students.

Randy Pausch, had dreams and goals someone could not even think of today, yet he is dying and is happy with his dreams and goals. He has accomplished so much in his life and wants to teach about it before he can’t teach it. The way this man can be dying and be so happy gives me the inspiration to keep going and that life could be worse. His beliefs in living life to the fullest, has inspired me to teach my students that no matter what live life to the fullest .I have always had a problem in seeing the good in every situation but this video gave me hope that it is possible. As a teacher,  I can persuade students to use this outlook on life.

Dr. Pausch refers to setting the bar as a downfall. I totally agree with this. If students have a bar to reach some will fail. If those students who fail get too bogged down, how will they ever feel successful? If my students do not feel successful, how will I encourage them to be positive and dream big? Goals are what you make of them. I will try to remember that not all students think on the same level and be open-minded to their outside thinking.

I could go on and on about how I could use things from this video in the classroom and how wonderful this man is. But, I need to relate my inner self with this man and see who I can be for my students. He was probably the most inspiring teacher a student could ask for. I want my students to remember as the teacher who impacted their dreams and goals. I do not want to be the teacher who downed them and told them there ideas were not good enough. The golden rule is to treat others how you want to be treated. Just think of John Doe when he is walking across the stage at graduation. John Doe will remember me as the teacher who was always positive and encouraging.