My EDM310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete!!

Thank you all for being apart of Dr. Strange's EDM310 TT2 Class!! It was Fun having you all in class w/me. I wish you all the best on your finals, your future classes in college, and especially your classrooms. God Bless you ALL & I look forward to seeing you all in other classes. Thanks!

What Have I Learn In EDM310?

All of these things blogs, presentations, Google Docs, Google spreadsheets, Picasa, podcasts, Twitter, other teachers, and students outside of the region, iTunes, accessibility issues and the use of html tag modifiers to address some of those issues, who I am as a professional, Google forms, data bases, Google Earth, Delicious, ACCESS, ALEX, and Foliotek are useful to me in some form or fashion. Blogging is useful to me as individual and as a teacher. As an individual, I am able to blog for my own purposes and as a teacher I plan to have a classroom blog where my students will be able to get homework and/or their family member will be able to see what we are doing in class. Presentations are important to me as an individual and as a teacher. As an individual I will always somehow be giving a presentation and as a teacher I will be giving presentations everyday when teaching. Google Docs is helpful to me as an individual because I am able to do presentations for class projects and as a teacher I could use Google Docs for powerpoints. Google spreadsheets can be used to teach my students how to use spreadsheets and as an individual I am able to use spreadsheets for my own purposes. Picasa is useful in both areas of my life because I will be able to find pictures for myself and some that I will like to show my students. Podcasts are a big help to me now. I am able to learn alot through podcasts and I plan to teach my students how to do a podcast. Twitter can be useful as a teacher and individual but I would probably just use it as teaching purposes. I dislike Twitter as an individual but it does help with finding activities for the classroom. Other teachers and students are extremely helpful because I am able to find out what others are doing in their classrooms. iTunes is helpful to me as an individual because I am able to download music and as a teacher I will be able to listen and/or show videos to my students by using iTunes. The accessibility issues and the use of html tag modifiers will be good for both purposes b/c they will help those with disabilities know what I have written. Who I am as a professional is very beneficial to me and others. All Google agents will be helpful to me as an individual and teacher because they are free. ACCESS and ALEX will be extremely helpful to me as a teacher. I will be able to help my students and get lesson plans. And lastly Foliotek will be helpful to me as an individual and teacher because I will be able to get my degree and get a job in the field of education.

Learning abt Twitter

I made the effort to learn about Twitter by following those that teach you more about Twitter. I have also watched some of the videos suggested by Dr. Strange and others. I have asked others that I know use Twitter how to do certain things on Twitter like how to send people private messages. To learn how to use Twitter I have done the following above along with using it daily, at least twice a day to get familiar with Twitter. I believe you can't learn how to do something with out asking for help and practicing it. I use Twitter at least twice a day to update my status, send private messages, read others that I am following status, and to add followers. I read the tweet of others every time I login to Twitter. I tweet every time I login into Twitter. I direct a public message just about everyday I login into Twitter, if the person is tweeting about something I am interested in. I send private messages on Twitter about the same as I send public messages. I like the private messages best. I my reaction to Twitter is that I dislike it. I don't think Twitter is necessary. It a valuable waste of time. The only reason I spend as much time on Twitter as I do is because I want to get familiar with it for my EDM310 class, otherwise I would not be apart of Twitter. Twitter could and is beneficial to me as a future teacher. At this moment by using Twitter, I am able to tweet and follow other teachers. Some teachers I follow are veterans and some are new Be's, but they all have good advice to give to someone like me. The negative aspect of Twitter to me that it is boring. You can look at pictures, you can get to know a person without asking questions. Twitter is boring and unnecessary. I probably will not use Twitter after I am done with my EDM310 class. Twitter is a waste of my time as a student and as an individual.

4 EDM 310 Podcasts

The first podcast I listen to was Can Wikipedia be useful to students and educators by Nick Nogueira, Tommy Nguyen, and Laren Mott. These students are not in Dr. Strange's EDM310 class but they are taking the same course at the University of South Alabama. The things I disliked about there podcast was that one of the students continue to second guess his knowledge about the topic and that when they were finish another student told the audience that we were done listening to him. I believe if you are you going to be a teacher you should 2nd guess yourself. If you don't know they material and you tell your students you don't they will not feel secure about being in your class. Your students will be like, "He/She doesn't even know what they are talking about."If you know the material, trust that you know it and stick with it. If you don't know it, do more research. I really felt like this group new what they were talking about, they just didn't have the confidence to say so. Lastly, I didn't like how one of the students told the audience that we (the listeners) were done listening to them. We (the listeners) don't know when you are done, you are the speaker, you are in control, therefore; you tell us when you are done.



The 2nd podcast I listened to was Using You Tube as an educational tool by Thelma Jones, Brittany Jinks, and Cynthia Burnette. I felt like they could have sounded more excited about doing the podcast, they also could have benefitted from this by smiling while they were talking. One of the speakers described using you tube as a tutoring device for math problems. When asked about getting the wrong answer from a you tube video, the students stated that her math book would have the correct answer in the back. This is not true. There have been several occasions were I have been in a math class and my and my classmates have directed the teacher to the back of the book which had an incorrect answer. To this I would have to say, "Make sure you are staying the correct information before you say it." If you're not sure about something, don't say it and/or research it. Ask someone before you state the wrong information. Lastly, I believe these students out off track while doing their podcast. They were suppose to be discussing how YouTube could be used as an educational tool but instead started to speak about YouTube as entertainment.


The 3rd podcast I listened to was ACCESS Distance Learning: A Work In Progress by Henryetta Alexander, April Jones, and Ashley Reed. I really like how they stated the history and objectives about ACCESS before they started. The last podcast I listened to was my own. My group did our podcast about ACCESS also. I felt like we could have did better by practicing what we were going to say, and maybe stating the history and objectives like the group stated above did.

Sir Robinsons' Arguments & My Reactions

Sir Robinson poses some extremely great arguments. He first discusses how people do things they are good at but aren't interested in. I agree with him on this because I even find myself doing things I am good at and not necessarily interested in. I and/or someone else may do these things for finances and/or to help others. Sir Robinson stated that "when you find something you're good at and you love, you never really work again." I agree with this because when you're good at something you love, it doesn't feel like work. It's more of a hobby, something you love that you don't mind doing. He states that most people don't have the experience of finding something they enjoy in their lives. I would have to disagree with this because I believe every one finds something they enjoy doing, they just may not take the time out to do it. Sir Robinson also states that, " If you don't know what you can do, you don't know what you can be." I totally agree with this. This is pretty self explanatory. He also talks about mothers having their kids interview so they may attend specific kindergarten schools. He disagrees with this but I agree with the moms. I'm not a mother yet. But when I become a mother I will like my child/children to attend the best schools. If this requires me, as a mom, videoing my child/children and sending in a video as an interview, I will. This will only introduce my child to the advancing world of technology at a very young age. It will also teach my child and show the teachers that they should have high expectations, just as well as I do. I expect my child/children to be the best and to be the best means attending the best schools, then so be it.

(-) & (+) of Blogs in the Classroom

For this particular post I took the liberty to read Christie Love's EDM 310 blog. She had some very interesting thoughts about some of the topics and/or assignments we were given as a class. A lot of which I did not think of and others, whom blogs I have read, haven't thought of as well. Christie made some great points in her blog posts. On some post assignments, she was very straight to the point and on others she was very detailed and lenghty.

I was not able to make comments to her blog posts because of technical difficulties but I hope she reads my blog so she will know that i believe "She Did A Great Job". My blog posts seem to be more detail and lengthy than most of Christie's but I would have to say that they both are equally the same. She seem to have more pictures then I have on my blog.

It seems like Christie had a wonderful experience by doing the classroom blogs. It shows how in the way her blog's layout is. Her EDM 310 blog's layout is very nice and colorful. It's very bright with pinks and reds. But most of all, you can tell her experiences through her posts. They are very exciting and easy to read. I had a wonderful time with the classroom blog as well, which I try to display so in my blog posts.

The pluses to blogging are you can keep up with other classmates/peers opinions and thoughts about different topics, you can stay up to date on classroom assignments and homework, and you can also leave your peers/classmates/professors comments about the good job they are doing and/or any corrections they may need to make. In my opinion there are many minuses about blogging. As a teacher you may make your classroom's blog private, for the class only, or you may make it public, so others around the world may view it. The only minus I see is that if your blog is public, others may try to contact your students and they may try to get to know them on a personal level.

"Growth" vs. "Fixed" Mindset

In the video podcast, Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology, talked about how some students have a fixed mind set and some do not. To have a fixed mindset is having something just the way you want it before you leave to take a test or head to school, "looking smart". Carol Dweck described how they did an experiment to teach students the growth mindset. They placed the students into two different groups. Each group participated in a 8 session workshop. The two different groups were study skills and growth mindset and just study skills. The group that only did study skills did the worst. The group that had study skills and mindset worked on these such as brain exercises and they learned how to apply it to school work.

When these students returned to their regular classrooms, the teachers could easily determine who had been in the study skills and growth mindset group and who did not. The difference was very obvious. Carol Dweck also said things like you have to have a mind set of growth and to be a good mentor you have to have a growth mindset. This effects me as a teacher by letting me know that it is very important to do brain/mind exercises in the classroom. It teaches me to teach my students to be mentors and good ones. As a teacher I will incorporate mindset exercises into my daily class activities.

K-5 Podcasts

I chosed grades k-5 to listen to because I am majoring in Elementary Education and I will like to know how these podcasts can benefit me as a teacher. The first one I listen to was "A Nigh in the Coral Reef". This video podcast talked about the ecosystem of the coral reef. It describe how different types of fish may live in this environment. It inform me about the different fish that may come out during the night and hide during the day, and why.

The 2nd video podcast I watched was "Energy Flow in the Coral Reef Ecosystem". This video was pretty similar to the first. The difference in the two were that this one really describe a food chain of the coral reef. It talked about how the coral gets energy from the sun light, parrot fish eat coral, parrot fish create sand at the bottom of the reef, sea cucumber eats sand, sea slug eats plants and gets energy from sun, long spined sea orchid keeps algae in checked, and herbivores get eaten by carnivores.

The last video podcast i watched was "What is a Planet?". This video talked about how many planets have been discovered, what is a planet, and why some were defined as something else.

All of these videos will be of tremendous help in the classroom. The first two will help define ecosystems and describe food chains. The last one will help describe a planet and the differences between a planet, asteroid, and comet.

Edutopia

I really enjoy watching both podcasts. My favorite of the two would have to be A Night in The Global Village. A Night in the Global Village is a podcast about students and teachers living the lives of someone less fortunate than them. The teachers explain to the students about the different groups of families. They explain the different conditions the students will be staying in. They place the students into groups then announced to the students which family they are. The students lived in the conditions as would the families. This was a very good experience for the students to see how others live and how blessed they are. I enjoyed this podcast most because it open my eyes upon the living conditions of others. I would like to experience what the students experienced.

Although, A Night in the Global Village is my favorite, The Edible Schoolyard was a good podcast as well. This podcast was about students at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School planting food, vegetables, fruit, etc., cooking, and eating it. The students were learning things that they don't even know they were learning. They learned how to set tables, how to eat and/or talk at a table, how to cook, how to plant food, and when to plant what. The best thing about this type of learning experience is that the students had fun learning.

The Night in the Global Village can be of use to me as a teacher by giving me an idea of a wonderful learning experience for my future students. It would also be a great podcast to show my future students. This way if my students are able to actually take part in a learning experience of this kind, they will be able to see it.

The Edible Schoolyard is a great teaching method I as a teacher can use at the school if given permission to. This podcast can be used by burrowing the ideas of these teachers and taking them inside the school and/or classroom. It can also be used by showing the students in the classroom.

iTunes University

According to Apple, iTunes University puts the power of the iTunes Store to work for colleges, universities, and other education organizations, so users can easily search, download, and play education content just like they do music, movies, and TV shows (http://www.apple.com/support/itunes_u/). On this site you can find how to, support topics for administrators and instructors. There is also, discussions, sample codes, and guides. From this site, you are also able to download the iTunes application, free of charge, to your computer. Once you download iTunes to your computer, you go to the iTunes Store and from there you will find iTunes U, iTunes University, in the column titled iTunes Store. When you click on iTunes U, there are plenty of items to choose from that will assist students and teachers.

As a student and teacher I am able to find podcasts, technology tips, and curriculum and instruction resources on iTunes U. Many of these topics and more are created by schools across the World. I am able to get different options and ideas on different topics depend on what schools and regions they are in. New Jersey's East Orange School was one of the school's podcast I took time to listen to. I really like their school's layout. They have podcast projects for science, social studies, art, etc. These could really give teachers ideas about project assignments and also help students to form ideas for their projects. I recommend iTunes U to everyone!

iPods in Instruction

While searching for web suggestions on ways to use iPods for suggestions I came across to interesting sites. One site was International Education Systems, which can be found at http://ies.edc.org/news/articles.php?id=262, and the other was Duke University First Year Experience Final Evaluation Report, which could be found at http://cit.duke.edu/pdf/reports/ipod_initiative_04_05.pdf.

International Education Systems'(IES) News Section as an article titled iPods Used to Train Teachers in Zambia. The article, which was done in Nov. 2007, states how teachers are using iPods to enhance professional training in mathematics, science, and English. During this experience, EDC distributed 12 iPods to sixth grade teachers there were experienced with EDC's interactive radio instruction (IRI) and trained them in their use. The iPods were loaded with IRI lessons, audio, and video training materials designed to support teachers in their presentation of complex topics. The article also explains how the iPods help the IRI team in Zambia address the challenge of conveying concepts that are more easily explained visually. The teachers are also able to broadcast the IRI lessons without being tied to the radio broadcast schedule, if there is a connection to a foot- or solar- powered generator and a set of speakers. This initiative isn't inexpensive though. The iPods are $250 each and the generators are $250, also. Simon Richmond of EDC's International Education Systems Division, believes as technology costs decrease and access to electricity spreads in Zambia, the technology will quickly become more affordable.

According to Duke University's First Experience, Duke distributed 20GB Apple iPods devices to over 1600 first-year students entering in August 2004. Each iPod was equipped with Belkin Voice Recorders. The Center for Instructional Technology (CIT) coordinated an evaluation of the academic use of iPods for students and faculty. The evaluation focused on feasibility and effectiveness of iPods as an academic tool for students and faculty. The academic use of iPods fell into five major categories: Course content dissemination tool, Classroom recording tool, Field recording tool, Study support tool, and File storage and transfer. Some of the benefits were greater student engagement and interested in class discussions, labs, etc. and flexible location-independent access to digital multimedia courses materials. Some disadvantages were difficulties in locating commercial source and obtaining licenses for content from independent and international publishers in appropriate format among others.

Both sites were very interesting, but the most interesting to me was the Zambia article. I didn't expect to find something of this sort.

Dr. Christie's Site

Dr. Christie's site is a very useful site for me, as an educator, and other educators as well. The site is very organized and easy to asses. The information is well put together and understandable to comprehend. She has sections such as Home, About Dr. Christie, Educational Technology, Classes, Workshops, GPS and Geocoaching, Google Earth, Searching the Web, Web Design, Publications, Photography, Consulting, Site Map, and Search.

All of these sections are helpful to me but the most helpful I would say is Educational Technology. I chose Educational Technology because it has plenty of tools for K-12 teachers to use in the classroom. Dr. Christie has put some very useful tools in this section. Some of which are Podcast(which we are working on this week in class), Rubrics(which teachers will always need), and Electronic Portfolios.

Reliability of Wikipedia

CalTech Student discovers whether or not Wikipedia is a reliable source. Virgil Griffith develops a Wikipedia Scanner that scans articles on wikipedia to find out whether any material in the articles have been changed or deleted. By using the Wikipedia Scanner you or anyone else may be able to find out if the article you are willing to use from wikipedia is a trusted source of information. The Wikipedia Scanner shows when, who, and what information has been tampered with. The scanner is able to trace the information back to the computer which changed or deleted the information. The scanner is also able to tell you what information was deleted and when. Throughout this information, Wikipedia could still be a reliable source. You should not be a dependent of Wikipedia. If you are going to use wikipedia as a source, do more research on your topic.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Randy Pausch lecture was actually more interesting then I thought it would be. I really enjoyed listening to him. He opened his message by telling the audience why he was giving his "last" lecture. Which is very important because if he didn't the audience would not have know why he titled it his last lecture. He told the audience what he was going to talking about and what he was not going to talk about. He did not want to go on and on about his condition.

He talked about the lessons he learned, what others taught him, his accomplishments, and enabling others. He discussed his experiences in college and in teaching. He explain the courses he taught in detail, painting a picture for the audience to see what his students could expect from his class and what he expected from his students. He enabled the dreams of others.

I really enjoyed the world video he showed the audience. It is really cool to know that as a student you are capable and able to do anything including video production. Although the virtual world was sort of scary, being that it was able to tell the students when it wanted to be turned off, it was pretty cool to see and I'm sure it was extremely cool to play.

I really like his methods of teaching. Its all about experience. He taught his students from his experiences. A few things he said that stuck out to me as a teacher are help others, enable the dreams of others, you can't go far without any help from others, brick walls are there for a reason: to show how bad you want something; and lastly, the best way to teach someone something is to make them think they are learning something else.

My Presentation

Best? Posts of 2007 - July

I readed the best post of 2007, which was published in July. It is titled NECC Reflection #1: Where were the students? In this post Karl talked about a trip to a NECC conference in which he didn't see many students. He notes that he knew students were there and that he just didn't see any. He also states how he would have loved to hear the students opinions on some of the topics. I agree this is good because how could a person know what someone else's wants with out asking the source.

Since he wasn't able to hear the desires of other students, he plans to take a few students along with him and others to the next NECC conference. This will eliminate the issue of not knowing what the students want. The students will also be able to sit in and listen to what the teachers planned to teach them and the different ways. I agree that this is a wonderful idea and I like what Karl is doing.

Peers' Podcasts

First, I will like to say that I really enjoyed listening to the podcasts of my peers. They showed me what to do and what not to do. The first podcast I listened to was titled Lessons from Life: The Last Lecture of Randy Pausch by Kele Volz and Crystal Powell. By listening to their podcast I could tell the young ladies had a lot of valuable information they want to speak about. They did their research, which is good. But there are some things I felt they could have done better on and some things I will try not to do when I do my podcast. One of the students sounded like she was reading the material directly off the page. I feel like she need to practice what she planned to say before they started to record. I could here pages flipping so I will suggest to use flashcards or have everything laid out in order before starting. They could have sound a little more excited and confident. They should make the listener want to listen to the rest of the message. They should have greeted their listeners and introduced themselves. And maybe they should or could have had some water near by just in case their mouths became dry and maybe have more than 2 speakers with so much material.

The second podcast I listen to was titled Possibilities for Using Facebook in an Educational Setting by Allison Midgette and Shaundretta Bethel. I really enjoyed listening to their podcast. It was great! I like how they introduced themselves even though Dr. Strange introduced them as well. I like how they defined facebook before starting the message, they sounded excited and knew what they were going to say. They even related the material to the listener. If you are not a education major, I believe you could still gain valuable information form this podcast. I founded out a lot of information by listening to this podcast.

When I do my podcast with my classmates, I will invite them to listen to both podcasts if they haven't done so already. We can learn something from both podcasts.

Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

Karl Fisch, a teacher and technology education specialist at Arapahoe High School in Littleton, Colorado, won an award form EduBlog Awards for his blog post "Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?" It was nominated as "The Most Influential Post of 2007". Fisch said he didn't expected to win a thing, not even did he expect to be nominated. He was actually responding to a post written by Terry Freedman. Freedman wrote a post about 'is it acceptable for a teacher to be technology illiterate?' And Freedman also proposed a set standards for teachers.

I really enjoyed reading Fisch's post. It was very enlightening to me. I totally agree with Fisch. I agree that teachers should and need to be very familiar with today's technology and so the technology that is to come, because there will be more, better, and faster technology. If teachers aren't educated upon technology, I don't believe teachers(we) will not be able to grasp the attention of most students, let alone teach them a lesson. Teachers have to be able to win students over form video games, ipods, mp3 players, myspace, and there are so many others that I could name but they will probably take up my entire blog. As teachers, we have to be knowledgeable about the latest technology available and we desire to educate our students about the technology and the different ways to use them.

Podcasts Part 2

In addition to the other podcasts, I went back to listen to some more podcasts. One was Keep It Real. They're topic was "What if you ask the students what they think?" TTT125 - 10.15.08 Teachers Teaching Teachers by Paul Allison, Susan Ettenheim, and Thomas (Teb) Locke. I did enjoy this podcast because it had students actually speaking about a topic. They were actually discussing podcasts. The other podcast I listen to was 107.9-FM WWPH in Princeton Junction. This is a student ran radio station. The title of the podcast I listen to by 107.9 was "The Great 108 Morning Roundup". Within this podcast, the students reported the news, recent sports events, weather, and also did commercials. And the last one I listened to was Aesop's Fables Podcast by LearnoutLoud.com. I listened to "The Swan and the Goose" and "The Boy Hunting Locust". This podcast consist of someone reading stories.

Podcasts

Although, I had a lot of problems with learning how to find the podcasts, I still managed to listen to a few. The ones I was able to listen to were SMARTBoard Lessons, KidCast, and MacBreak Weekly. They were all pretty interesting but I have my favorite out of the three and my reasons. I will describe the few I was able to listen to in the following paragraphs.

First, the SMARTBoard Lessons' podcast was interesting. I listened to episode 150: Links You Can Use:K-12 Finally the Future. The speakers talked about helpful links teachers may want to use. They also talked about the top five ways to misuse your smartboard. They identified that they were not going to focus on wrongful things but on helpful tips. Even though, it was directed at the ways you may misuse your smartboard, they had positive things to say and said things positive.

Second, I listen to the KidCast's podcast. I listen to the one titled "The Medium is Not the Message". I have to say this one was my favorite out of the three. The author was Dan Schmit. I loved his message, it was very helpful to me. Being a student that plans to do a podcast in the future, he really gave some good advice. He discussed how students are doing podcasts just to do a podcast and not delivering the message through the podcast correctly. Basically, I feel like he is saying, instead of using the podcast as a way of communication and delivering a message, students are just recording their voices. By listening to his message, I have a different understanding upon the way I am and will view the assignment when we do our podcasts. I will deliver the message and use the podcast as "an extended idea of communication" (Dan Schmit), instead of just recording my voice.

Lastly, I listen to the MacBreak Weekly's podcast titled la la leo. I really did not enjoy this one at all. It sounded more like a radio station, which they are all similar to. Upon listening to these podcasts, I definitely plan to listen to more and I am excited about recording podcasts in class.

International Classroom Blog #2

For my 2nd international classroom blog, I have the honor of describing Ms. Thomas's classroom blog from Meadowbank School Room 23 in Auckland, New Zealand. The students in her class are ages 6-7. On their blog she has assignments the students have worked on such as making a planet explorer. A planet explorer is how the students show that they are able to identify the planets. She also uses this blog as a way for her students to place posts up to tell their parents, family members, and others (like you and i) about their class assignments for that day and/or week. I really like how she uitilized the blog to teach her students how to put posts on an internet's blog site. To check their blog out for yourself just visit meadowbankreporters.blogspot.com.

International Classroom Blog #1

For my international classroom blog post, I found Ms. Rachel Boyd's class blog. The class is from Nelson Central School in New Zealand, Room 9. I have to say this is my favorite classroom blog by far. I love the way she organized the blog with the different tabs and colors. She has a photo album on the blog so anyone can check out photos of her students. Also on the blog is something that really impressed me. The students are doing podcasts(i believe)! They're doing podcasts about Lorax. They also have a little video of pictures that goes along with the podcast. To check on this classroom's blog visit the link http://room9nelsoncentral.blogspot.com/.

Mrs. Lowe's Class Blog

For my 2nd K-12 Classroom Blog that is being taking place in the United States, I chose Mrs. Lowe's Class out of Missouri.On the Classroom's website(http://schoolweb.missouri.edu/poplarbluff.k12.mo.us/lowe/)there is a link to the blog(http://plowe.edublogs.org/), which is titled The Lowe Down. Mrs. Lowe uses the blog to communicate with her student's parents and other classroom teachers. She has posts about what she will use to teach the students and ways she will help them learn through practice. She has links that parents or teachers may visit to help their children study. The links maybe to handouts, games, etc. She also has links that will take you back to the classroom's blog and to podcasts. Something very interesting about this blog was that Mrs. Lowe's recorded her students doing an activity and you can go on the website and listen to it. It's titled "Sweet Sounds of Learning". I enjoyed checking out Mrs. Lowe's classroom blog.

Mr. Langhorst 8th Grade Classroom Blog

This is a picture that I found on the classroom's blog spot. The students are watching President Obama's Inauguration.

















This is a picture I found on the class's website of the students in class.

Hi, the first K-12 Classroom Blog I found was Mr. Langhorst's 8th Grade American History Class, which is a class that is taught at South Valley Junior High in Liberty, Missouri. The link to the classroom's website is http://www.liberty.k12.mo.us/~elanghorst/blog. On the website there is a link(http://www.speakingofhistory.blogspot.com/) which will send you to the classroom's blog. On the classroom's website, Mr. Langhorst has laid out a very resourceful page for students and parents. There are different topics/tabs such as: Course Description, which describes the course; Student Resource Page, where the students may find classmates' email addresses; Parent Resource Page, which has the same tabs as the homepage but in detail for parents; Teacher Resource Page, which teachers may find Mr. Langhorst's lesson plans and the type of materials he used with links to each; Contact Mr. Langhorst, which has his contact information; About Mr. Langhorst, which tells about his life; This Week In Class, this tab tells the student and/or parents what their child may have missed while out of class that particular week(s); Units of Study, describes the units the students will learn in class and activities for each; Student Project Showcase, has links that will direct you to the blog spot for student projects; Weekly Parent Newsletter, shows the newsletter the school sends out to parents each week which you may download; Class Pictures and Video, has class pictures that may have been taken in class or while on field trips and video which have been taped in or outside of class; South Valley Jr High Page, will direct you to the school's website; Mr. Langhorst's Podcast/Blog, will direct you to Mr. Langhorst's blog and podcast; and lastly Cool Links and Sites, which students may check out for extra study methods. On the Blog spot there are mostly podcasts and videos from class. There are also links for students to check out about American History.

The Fisch Bowl 2007

My reaction to the Fisch Bowl Movie, which you can watch at http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/06/did-you-know-20.html, was that I was very interested in seeing what was going to be in the rest of the movie after seeing some of the facts and statistics it showed. The movie started with an interesting fact about how many babies are born in 8 seconds, 34 babies, which I though would be a much higher number. It also stated that there were 1.3 million 2006 graduates in the U.S., which I am proud to say I was apart of. But very unaware of, I did expect India to have more graduates than the U.S. at 3.1 million. This is very exciting to know and China had 3.3 million. The video stated the 100% of India's 2006 college graduates spoke English and in 10 years China will be the number one English speaking country. It said that many of the majors offered today did not exist10 years ago such as: New Media, Organic Agriculture, e-business, Nanotechnology, and Homeland Security. It gave statistics such as: today's 21 year olds have watched 20,000 hours of television, played 10,000 hours of video games, talked 10,000 hours on the phone, and have sented and/or received 250,000 emails or IMs. And I can back this up because I send and receive a lot of emails and IMs. :-) All of these were pretty interesting facts the video mention but this was not all. It went on to inform us about how future computers will have more knowledge than the human brain and some will exceed the computer capabilities of the human race in 2049! It ends with letting us know that we should prepare our students for jobs that do not exist so they will be capable of fixing the problems that do not exist!

The ACCESS Program

The Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators, and Students Statewide (ACCESS) Program is a Distance Learning program for students. It provides opportunities and options for Alabama public high school students to engage in Advanced Placement (AP), elective, and other courses to which they may not otherwise have access. The students are allowed to take Advanced Placement courses during regular school hours through a web-based program, one-on-one lectures, and recently added, the students are now able learn through interactive video conference with their teachers.
By visiting http://accessdl.state.al.us/, one could learn more about ACCESS and how it can accommodate you, your child, and/or student(s). The website has different tabs that you can go under such as About ACCESS, Courses, Students, Educators, Parents, Contact Us, Help, and Resources. Under About ACCESS, it describes the ACCESS program; under the Courses tab, it identifies the courses that are available through ACCESS; in the Students tab, it tells the students what type of activities and devices they should look forward to doing and using, it also shows the students were classes will be held; under the Educators tab, teachers who are interested in teaching in the Distance Learning program may see what jobs are available; under the Parents tab, it describes ACCESS for the parents, lets them know what their child will be learning, and where the classes will be held and where they are offered; under the Contact Us tab there is information such as telephone and email addresses which one can use to contact someone who works for ACCESS; the Help tab has frequently asked questions; and the Resources tab identifies the type of exams and tests the students will be taking. One can also take a look at a powerpoint on ACCESS at: http://accessdl.state.al.us/showaccess.php?Ink=aboutaccess. The powerpoint gives good information on ACCESS as well but in a simpliest form.
The ACCESS program will be usefull to me because I am able to inform my future students and their parents about the program, for those students who want to take Advanceplacement Classes. It will also be usefull to me if I ever decide to teach a Distance Learning class.

Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX)

The Alabama Learning Exchange, ALEX, is the Alabama Department of Education’s interactive Web portal. According to Shannon Parks’ article titled Alabama Learning Exchange: ALEX Web Portal, ALEX receives over 31,000 unique visitors per month. She also states that ALEX won a 2007 “Best of the Web” Award from the Center for Digital Education and Government, hosting, through the Alabama Supercomputer Authority, a rich assortment of interactive and resources linked to the searchable Alabama Courses of Study. Most of these activities are supplied by the Verizon Foundation’s, Thinkfinity.org, with over 2,000 lesson plans supplied by Alabama teachers. The resources are designed to engage students and teachers in 21st century learning, and expand new opportunities. Last year a training program was offered and available in every district to help teachers learn to use ALEX and Thinkfinity.org in their area of expertise. Parents are also able to help their child meet school expectations at home by using ALEX (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org).
If one visits ALEX’s home site, http://alex.state.al.us, he or she will see that it’s full of life and color. It has different tabs on which one can choice that’s best fit for them, such as Courses of Study, Web Links, Lesson Plans, Search, Personal Workplace, Professional Learning, Distance Learning, and Help. In the Courses of Study tab it gives a description of what every grade level would or should be learning under each subject area. Under the Web Links tab there are links for teachers, administrators, and students. In the Lessons Plans tab a teacher can create a lesson plan and a parent can take a look at a teacher’s lesson plan. Under the Workplace tab a teacher may login to enter their workplace, which may contain any and all work such as lesson plans the teacher may have created using ALEX. The Professional Learning tab helps a person keep up with the latest news and find learning tools among other things. In the Distance Learning tab it will provide a person with access to the Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators, and Students Statewide (ACCESS) program. ACCESS gives students Advance Placement opportunities that they may not usually have. The students attend web-based courses by using two-way video and audio devices. Under the Search tab one may search through the above tabs for assistance and in the Help tab there are frequently asked questions.
ALEX will be a good use to me when I become a teacher because I will not only be able to use it to create lesson plans and such but I will also be able to inform my students and parents about ALEX. Therefore, parents will know exactly what their student(s) is learning and will also be able to assist them with such.

Who Am I?

Hi, my fellow classmates! My name is Angel Jackson. I am a rising Junior at the University of South Alabama, majoring in Elementary Education. I chose this field not only because I love kids but also because this is my calling. I love to have fun with children by playing games and teaching lessons. I enjoy incorporating a little fun into everything. My roommates always tell me "Your kids are going to love you because you're so fun." Currently I work at the Exploreum and for the University in the Communication Department. I have been working at the Exploreum for 3 years now. I enjoy working there because I teach the camps that it has open for kids during summer, spring, and winter breaks. While working in the Communication Department it helps me develop listening and communicating skills, which I will definitely need while teaching. I am so interested in how people learn so I'm planning to take up Psychology or Counseling after I finish my Education degree in 2010. Well...that's enough information about me. I look forward to learning about you all this semester.

WELCOME

Hi, readers and welcome to my blog, I hope you have a great time reading my blogs this semester(which I'm sure I'll have a wonderful time reading yours as well) and I will like to thank you in advance for being a reader.