Final Project Geocaching

Final Report on PLN

Ok! My PLN has evolved immaculately! It has grown so enormous that sometimes it's hard to keep up! I am following so many professional scholars and educators that I highly recommend for all education majors! For example, I just got off of Twitter and the last follower that posted is a baldwin county librarian who is also an instructional designer with an informative webpage with all sorts of creative ideas and helpful hints for anything you could imagine. Her last post was a link to pedagogical considerations for developing an online tutorial! Something I'm sure I'll be needing help with one of these days! I'm also a dancer/dance teacher/choreographer and I follow inspirational dancers who keep me on my toes (get it? lol) and never let me forget how dance can feed the sole. Along with education learning and dance leaders I also follow religious inspirators to keep my spirit in check ; ) These things take up a multitude of my PLN space and are constantly adding to my brain power with their posts, videos, pictures, links, and powerful happenings that follow them around (I created a word for the "postable" products... "postable"). Love it! Twitter is also used for advertising and broadcasting important news! When I graduate, you better believe within the first 5 minutes of being done with school I will Tweet about receiving my diploma and completing another chapter in my book!

C4T #4 Summary

Blogging About the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom

First I commented on Skype in the classroom in which I am a huge fan of! This post was mainly about how Skype is a valuable tool that many teachers discovered can break down the walls of their classroom. Steven Anderson, the creator of this blog, is looking toward getting teachers started with Skype and connecting their classroom to the outside world. A short and sweet (but helpful) Skype video accompanied this post to further explain the benefits of Skype. I totally concur with the points Mr. Anderson was making and how well Skype can be used for collaborative educational purposes. I believe it can truly broaden the horizon for children and administrators who are willing to accept and work with it. For example, one thing I plan to do with my kids is get them communicating with a person (student/teacher) from another country! Not only will it be a friend, a peer, or an advisor for certain things, but also an educational tool to experience and hopefully break language barriers, chance to see other cultures, etc. and so forth! The possibilities are endless! So, guess you can say I'm pro Skype!


Next, I read a post titled What's wrong with Google telling me everything?. Love this post! This one really striked my fancy because I Google EVERYTHING these days! I google definitions of words for school papers or just socialization purposes. I google meaningless things or religious things, health facts and calories, holidays, recipes, anything imaginable! The possibilities are endless with google and I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing as long as you search thoroughly and properly. However, I am concerned about relationships and the effect it may have on peoples connections with one another. For example, before google I would just go to my parents for answers to my questions, and if they didn't know then I would go to another person (friend, family member, wise elder, etc) who I thought would know. Sometimes I would even seek out a stranger for information, leading to a new friendship/acquaintance. Whether significant or not it usually led to a great conversation of some sort or more information that I didn't know (either about that person or the topic at hand). Interesting none-the-less. Isn't this what life is all about? Connecting with people, bonding, building relationships, learning from someone more experienced? I think it is and believe it to be a crucial part of human development. If we go to google (I'm guilty of this) those connections or lack there of, are only made with the computer thus not fully reaching the potential that the "question asking task" could reach... taking away our bonding, relationship building, and even friendship establishments. With teachers, if the child came to ask a question, you may learn important information about the child that you would never have otherwise surfaced. It's a window of opportunity (the question asking to a person as opposed to a computer that is).
So... I guess what I'm saying is that Google has it's pros and cons (just like everything in the world). We should just be weary of the extent to which we rely on the internet, and always search for a useful source!
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Blog Post 13

Alabama Learning Exchange
The Alabama Learning Exchange is a website for educational purposes. This website can assist you in so many educational areas. Teachers can post and share their lesson plans to ALEX, to broaden and expand their learning world. I have already used this tool to create a lesson plan for my future class and I'm not even a teacher yet!. It also offers "courses of study," allowing you to choose the grade and subject for further detail and shows you the basic curriculum of what they should be going through. Secondly, it has all sorts of weblinks for teachers, administrators and even students to lead you in the direction you would like to go. Furthermore, ALEX has a "personal workspace" option for you to add whatever it is you want, a search engine to maximize your assistance, "professional learning," where you can go to the ends of the educational systems and which ever department you might need, and last but not least a "podcast treasury" with any kind of podcast you can imagine... and it's free! So as you can see, ALEX is such a professional, reliable and available source for helping, informing, entertaining, teaching, learning and so much more! I love this website and think it absolutely brilliant! I am so thankful to have a site where anyone can go and leave or post a lesson plan, find a lesson plan, clear up any confusion about the educational system, help manage a classroom and teach closer to the curriculum. It is such a beneficial website, everyone should check it out!

ACCESS Distance Learning
"Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide" is incredible! This website provides classroom courses and teachers via technology. Its' goal is to create equity through additional educational offerings for all Alabama Public High School students. It has announcements, and support centers and like ALEX has weblinks to offer. This site is very informative, easy to navigate, and figure out what you're looking for. Like ALEX, I feel it was well created and does a great job of getting it's point across to the public... which I believe to be a positive and helpful educational tool to the outside world.

Progress Report for Final Project

I am working with my favorite, Jessica Battles! She and I were both inspired by Dr. Strange's geocaching comment in his video of how to get started for our final project. We have decided on geocaching because we both have a little experience in this and feel that it can be a great learning tool to incorporate geography and GPS technology. We haven't yet decided on a location or what we are going to leave for the next geocacher to retrieve but we are so stoked to get started and believe it will be a great final project!

Project 15- Book Trailer

C4K #7,8,9,10 (Summary Post for April)

C4K#10

Jaden's Awesome Blog
This kid Jaden is awesome! Hence his "awesome blog." He demanded quality posts on his blog which I respected tremendously, on his 3rd grade level. His post was about a Clippers vs. Mavericks basketball game that was pretty exciting. The Clippers were winning when the game started off but then the Mavericks took the lead making a final score of Mavericks 106, Clippers 100 (so close). You could feel the excitement through Jaden's post which made for a great topic and post in the end! Plus he added questions for his readers at the end to ensure their connection and engagement to the material! He did a fantastic job!

C4K#9
Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog
Mrs. Yollis is an inspiration, even through my computer screen! She has been teaching a combination of classes and grades for 24 years and exudes this happiness on her blog! She currently teaches 3rd grade and says "she enjoys working alongside parents to bring out the best in their children!" I loved this! Most teachers say, "I love kids" or "I want to better the educational system" or "I want to help the intellectual growth of our future generation" but I have never heard of it in a way as this, in COMBINATION with parents. Like teamwork or a partnership! Beautiful! Her blog is very neat and organized with links at the top to direct you to what you are looking for. There is an intro to her and to her bloggers (her 3rd grade class), a video on how to comment, and some other helpful links to show a little bit of what they do in class and how they go about it. So, Mrs. Yollis uses her blog to teach students of course, and to get them blogging and technologically advance them for this 20th century, but also to communicate with the parents of her class and show them the work their children have been doing, and projects, or books they're reading, etc. Mrs. Yollis' instructional purposes for and on her blog are very informative and easy to follow (which I love) and also direct and to the point for her liking. She is straightforward with correct grammar, punctuation, etc and stresses the significance for this on her blog. Mrs. Yollis not only involves students and parents in her blog but also classes and people from around the world. She posted clocks of specific timezones of contacts that they communicate and/or keep up with! For example she has a clock with Los Angeles' time, and underneath that is a separate clock of Mr. Salsich's time, and then under that one is the time for Tanzania! How cool is that? If I were a 3rd grader I would love that part of the blog! This blog is very professional in that it appeals to the student and parent involvement, while also connecting them to technology and communication of peers, people, places and things around the world! What a great window of opportunity for these student's educational foundation!

C4K#8
I was assigned to take a look at a Voki which is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile and in email addresses. You can make one that looks just like you and then add a message for it to speak! So cool! You better believe I'll be utilizing this Voki so be looking for it to miraculously appear in the near future!

C4K #7
I also was assigned a link to an Australian student's blog where she only had one video, so I just commented on that one, unsure of what else to do...
Anyway 2 female Australian students posted a video of them singing a "Rainforest Song" about the importance of it's health and existence on this planet, the beautiful things it has to offer, and how it's a home for so many plants and animals and all sorts of living creatures! They also brought to the table the pain that the Rainforest goes through, making it's devastation very real to me as a viewer! I commented back how much I enjoyed their singing and piano talents, the words that were sung, and being able to feel for the Rainforest. Not only was this a project in which they learned a lot from, I'm sure, but also they have the ability to inspire people and ideas with this tiny school project and anything else they encounter in the future! It was great!

C4K #6
I just watched a video on German Gnomes from Mr. Mclung's class blog! Two male students in his class provided intermission entertainment for a World Language Festival that their school held! They danced around for a few minutes, dressed as gnomes, and got the audience involved. I couldn't really hear the music or the singing over the audience, but the audiences entertainment and involvement was the purpose of the gnome dance, so I have to say... mission accomplished!

Blog Post 12

In Blog Post #12, our instructions are to create an assignment for a blog post that our professor would have created, including the instructions to go with the assignment. Not only do we get to create an assignment but we also have to DO the assignment (a double whammy as I like to say). This is a FABULOUS idea, probably my favorite Dr. Strange assignment yet!

ASSIGNMENT
The assignment is to describe your perfect, ideal, technologically savvy, futuristic classroom. It can be anything you want. Make sure to include the grade you are teaching, the shape and color of the room, all the gadgets you wish to use, the style and shape of the furniture/desks, the tools available for your students and anything you may concoct. Also, attach a photo, or design your own layout of your room, something visual that can make your dream become a reality for everyone else to see!

MY EXAMPLE
My perfect room would most definitely be one with technologically advanced media systems and options in it!
1. First, I would have a robot as a class aid. This robot could do any task from cleaning to tutoring to taking a disruptive child to the principals office.

2. Next, all of the kids desks would have touch screen desks (like an ipad, only in desk form)! And of course they can perform any function a student might need from keyboard typing to surfing the internet, being a notepad for taking notes, connecting to my board if I need them to, having a Skype option, anything imaginable. I would have one too, along with a similar board (much more advanced than a Smartboard) for notes and lectures and classroom instructions.

3. The room would have movie screen walls that are constantly posting proper media, pictures, notes or whatever goes with what the activity we are partaking in at the time. But windows are mandatory, as to not give the children a headache, so the screen/walls are moveable and the windows have remote control black out shades that are easily maneuvered up and down as needed.

4. In this perfect world we would also have on hand any supplies, tools, etc from the past (just like today's classroom) in case our technology fails for some reason and we need a plan B.
5. Also, you can't have a perfect classroom without instruments available for the kids, easels for their artwork, a science lab in the corner, letters on the ceiling that change with the topic of conversation (so #s for math and President's faces for history, so on and so forth). Any of these may cause distractions, so of course I control all of the stimuli with just a swift push of a button!

6. I would love it if there could be holes in the floor just big enough for each of the students' desks, that way if we wanted to stretch or have a dance party or need to sprawl out in the floor and use space, we could have that option!
7. If you couldn't already tell, from the "nap time" mentioned above, this fun and innovative world is for elementary student's (I was thinking kindergarten), so the higher the grade level, the higher the technological expectation should be... just sayin.

There's my perfect classroom! I know it's not realistic (at least not now), but I hope it strikes your fancy and creativity for your future classroom!

Blog Post 14 Special Metaphor Assignment

metaphorical songs.

1. I believe the reason I missed the metaphor is because I take school and my assignments too literally, as mentioned in the classblog post. This baffles me though because I don't take life in general too serious, which is why I think I'm made for working with kids... I love to clown and joke around and always keep things light (metaphor?) and funny! But I've never really worked with metaphors so I guess I just didn't know what to look for... maybe I was just too consumed with getting the assignment done (sorry for the honesty, but lesson learne ;)
2. Today I was running like the wind and thinking of metaphors that I encounter daily (unlike anything that has ever consumed my thoughts). The apple of my eye told me his favorite metaphor was music to my ears (his ears of course). But then it started to rain cats and dogs and I had to run for cover like there was no tomorrow! So the metaphorical conversation was cut short but metaphors are now the light of my life so I'm sure I will be in touch with them sooner than I think! \http://grammar.about.com/od/rhetoricstyle/a/ColbertMetaphors.htm
3. I think this #3 question is a great one because I don't remember any of my teachers ever addressing metaphors, and if they did, obviously it wasn't significant enough to stick with me because I'm only 23 and didn't catch the metaphor post! Hate it for me : (
Anyway, some things we can do as educators to help our students better understand and use metaphors is to broaden their vocabulary! Vocabulary is regular thing in school, but maybe if we incorporate the vocab into/in with the metaphors, it will be like a two-for-one deal! Learn a new word AND a new phrase/saying. Also, a metaphorical project might be fun? Like creating a song with nothing but metaphors... or maybe a metaphorical research assignment on the who, what, when, where, why and how's of metaphors...
These are brand new ideas so they're a little rusty but you catch my drift.
4. Why do we use metaphors? Well for us "visual" learners/people, I believe it gives us a better grasp at what the metaphor is implying. No we don't always visualize the actual metaphor being spoken but it just sounds good to the ears and seems like a smooth transition into a shift of topic or another conversation. Sometimes it can be used for comic relief too (least that's when I use my metaphors the most). I don't think there is any 1 reason we use metaphors but a thousand little reasons why people love them so much! They're better understood and more comprehendible, and just plane fun, when compared to a boring ole regular sentence!

Project 14- Teach Someone Video

Blog Post 11

Skype Interview with Ms. Cassidy!.
Ms. Cassidy's approach is almost identical to Dr. Strange's approach to education and technology. I would say she is the female opposite of Dr. Strange. I have grown to love and agree with Dr. Strange's point of view with technology and just can't wait to continue this growth with technology and then eventually being able to teach it to my students! I will have to say I agree completely with Ms. Cassidy's approach to the use of technology in the classroom. She is teaching them about blogs, wikis, Skype, Nintendo DS, etc. These forms of learning are definitely "new age" and are hard for me to grasp but at the same time I truly love that the classroom has technologically evolved to this sort of level! It's absolutely incredible! They are so much farther along than most adults I know and can teach us about this technology which in turn leads to their growth in more ways than one! I hope I am able to use ABSOLUTELY ALL of her techniques being that I believe they are healthy and adequate for proper student learning and development. Impediments I might encounter like the cheating one of our students ask about, would be an issue, yes, but is a "shift" just like she says and you just make arrangements where needed and fix the problem as it arises and validly and morally ethical as you can.