Blog Post 16

Final Reflection

In going back and rereading my first blog post, it is clear to me now that I had so much to learn. Before taking EDM 310, I knew a decent bit about computers and technology, but I didn't have a good understanding of how to incorporate this technology into my classroom.

This semester, my eyes were opened to all of the never ending resources available through technology. I didn't know anything about podcasting, blogging, iPad applications, smart boards. After being in EDM 310, I now feel that I am familiar enough with these things that I could successfully use them in my classroom.

In my future classroom, I hope to have enough iPads that my students could each have one, or at least share them in groups of two or three. I will use iPads for research. They could use icurio to find information they needed for any project we have. I will also use iPads in centers. There are so many apps available that are educational games students could really benefit from. I also plan on using a class blog, and I plan to let my children create their own blog if they want (and with their parent's consent :) ). During center time, the students could work on their blogs, writing new posts and uploading new presentations.

Another important resource I will use in the Smart Board. I will use it to teach my lessons with. I will also use it to pull up educational YouTube videos for my students to watch. Smart boards can also be used for interactive lessons. There are smart board apps and websites I have found where the children could actively participate in my teaching. I think this is an awesome thing to use, because it gets the children involved and hopefully will keep their attention more easily. I will also allow my smart board to be a center. I will let the students use to to practice their spelling words or practice their math problems. Since the smart board has all different symbols, shapes, and multimedia objects, it is a great tool for math.

I also had NEVER thought about pod-casting before. I didn't even have a clue what it was before we had to use it in this class. I am so glad I had the chance to use it and learn about how useful it can be. It is such a useful tool for the teacher to use to communicate with students outside the classroom. It would be so helpful for me to be able to just record a pod cast of my lesson to send to student who was out sick. It is also something the students can use. They can use pod casting to tell everyone what they are learning. They could use it to summarize information they learned on a project, ask questions, and share their thoughts.

Lastly, I learned so much about iMovie. I do not own a Mac, so there is no way I would have known about all the things you can do on iMovie. I learned how to record, edit videos, and make a book trailer. I also learned that on Macs you can use iBook author to create your own book. I think this would be an awesome thing to get students into. They could use it for projects instead of just using PowerPoint or Prezi. It would be something completely different and cool for them.

I plan on using all types of technology resources available to me in my future classroom. I also plan on using project based learning. I think it is a great way for students to learn. This way, they are actually making since of the information themselves. It is much more beneficial than me standing up there, telling them everything they need to know. Over the course of the semester, the ideas I had about my future classroom have completely changed. I didn't have a clue when we first started out. Now, I have ideas stirring inside my head, and most of them include the use of technology!

Blog Post #15

Having a Great Time Teaching Mom by: Emma Boren

 

The iPad has a lot of great tools that can assist blind children in using it. Blind children can use the iPad due to it’s talking feedback. You can use a finger to scroll over all the icons, and it will tell you exactly what you are on and how to open it. It also talks to you while typing. There are two modes for this, standard typing mode and touch typing mode. This way, the children know what letters they are typing, and it helps them know that they are typing the right thing. It also talks to you when you have apps open. If you scan your finger across the screen it will tell you what you are clicking on. This is a useful way for these children to get the same benefits of technology as the children who are not blind. The students would still be able to interact in the classroom with the iPads and not feel left out. They would be receiving the same education. I think this an excellent tool to have in a classroom where there are special education students that are visually impaired. I would use it in my classroom!

Ipad Usage For the Blind By: Shakeya Andrews

 

 

Ipads are good tools to use in my classroom because they have what is called VoiceOver. VoiceOver is a resource that students with vision impairment and students who are deaf can use. This gives them the  opportunity to navigate through email, ibooks, itunes u, and more with just the click of a finger. Using VoiceOver on the ipad will help the student become independent. According to VoiceOver Accessibility “VoiceOver is a revolutionary screen reader that lets you know what is happening on your Multi-Touch screen and it helps you navigate even if you cannot see what is on your screen.” Voiceover is built into the ipad therefore, I will not have to worry about buying and installing this application to use on ipads in my classroom. There is also an application on ibooks called ereader that will be helpful for my students with disabilities. You can buy and read books to students to through this application. Students will be able to hear a description of items that are on their screen and from there they can choose where they want to navigate to on their ipad. Students can also use braille and international voices through VoiceOver. VoiceOver is accessible for almost any student.

Teaching Math to the Blind By: Shakeya Andrews

Instead of using the traditional method of teaching math by pencil and paper or using the whiteboard, I can use number blocks as an assistive technology tool. The blocks have braille on the back of them and the visually impaired student will be able use a barcode scanner to identify what the numbers are. All the student has to do is hold the button on the barcode scanner, then place the scanner over the block and the computer will identify what the number on the block is. Math is already a difficult subject to teach so I think it would be wise for me as the teacher to have a one on one session to teach the student math using this method.

 

By: Tracy Armstrong

Wikipedia defines Assistive Technology as an umbrella term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and also includes the process

used in selecting, locating, and using them. AT promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing enhancements to, or changing methods of interacting with, the technology needed to accomplish such tasks.

A couple of assistive technology tools that I think will be available when we become teachers are the IPad and the EBook. Both of these tools can be used across all grade levels. Both will enhance learning for both the vision and hearing impaired student by involving them in the classroom assignments and making them feel apart of the classroom community. The IPad is equipped with  apps for communication such as voice over as well as apps for screen reading and navigating.. These features will make learning personal by enabling the students’ independence. The EBook also contains apps that can be utilized for features such as voice-over, text to speech, magnification and large text for all subject areas.

After watching The Mountbatten, we learned that the students who are identified as struggling learners rely on immediate feedback from their teachers as well as their peers.One of the best things about this type of technology is that the teacher does not need to know Braille in order to communicate with the student because the machine converts the braille text into print. The blind student is therefore able to research, explore and create on his own with the help of this assistive technology thus including him into classroom assignments.

C4T November

I was assigned to Steven Anderson's blog Blogging About the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom

The World Innovation Summit On Education-#WISE13  

This week (October 29-October 31) I am in Doha, Qatar, attending the WISE Summit. Folks from over 100 countries are gathered to talk about what is working in education, examine current trends and discuss how countries can work better together, to provide kids everywhere a solid education.

After the amazing experience last year, there was no question I was headed back when I was asked to return. The conference is full of some of the brightest minds and best conversations.
But you don't need to head to Doha to participate. You can add your voice to the conversation no matter where you are.
First, what is WISE?

How can you get involved?
Website: http://www.wise-qatar.org/ Here you will find everything WISE. When the conference gets underway you will also be able to tap into what is happening at the conference.
WISE Livestreams: http://www.wise-qatar.org/wise-summit-2013#tabs-9 You don't have to be in Doha to participate. All the major sessions are livestreamed and you can add your thoughts, ideas and reflections too.
WISE Polls: http://www.wise-qatar.org/wise-summit-2013#tabs-6 The polls are simple. Pressing questions in education are raised here. MOOCs, STEM education, data gathering, and more. The questions and responses will be shared and discusses at the summit.
WISE Infographics: http://www.wise-qatar.org/wise-summit-2013#tabs-7 Who doesn't like a great infographic? The folks at WISE have created some great ones to share. Everything from how money is spent on Education from around the world to more serious issues like the number of children who are trying to get a solid education in conflict zones. These infographics can serve as a starting point for conversations and help us see education is no just something to think about at the local level, it's a global issue.
There will be lots of discussions on Twitter too. You can follow @wise_tweets or the #WISE13 hashtag.
If this year's summit is half as good as the one last year, there is sure to be some great learning and reflections happening. I hope you can join in, no matter where you are!

 

My Comment

Hi! My name is Emma Boren. I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. As a future educator myself, I think this is an AWESOME program. I have never heard of it before, however, I will definitely be looking into it more. Thank you for sharing your experience and for sharing ways to get involved from home!

 

 

The @ASCD Arias-The 5 Minute Teacher 

Recently ASCD released several short books that are aimed at packing a big punch in a small package. Each are less that 100 pages but have loads of quality information. Over the next few posts we will look at each one to see what they are all about. Then we will give away 1 copy of each. Sound like fun? In the first post we took a look at Fostering Grit. Then we examined Teaching With Tablets and Grading and Group Work. This time we look at The 5-Minute Teacher. 

In my first few years of teaching I always felt stress on Sundays. That was the day I sat down with all my textbooks and plan books and decided on what I would teach for the week. My classes were divided into 60 min chunks. My stress came from trying to figure out how I would fill each one of those minutes. I had units and lessons I would plan I knew would take days but I didn't have days. On the flip side I had lessons I knew would take only minutes, then what would I do with the rest of the time? 

Later on I learned different methods and strategies along the way that would help alleviate some of the stress of planning (like my adoption of formative assessments among other things.) But it took me several years and trial and error to feel comfortable. 

Enter Mark Barnes and the ASCD Arias Book The 5-Minute Teacher. 

We have just a precious few moments to engage our students in learning. Mark argues that 5 minutes can make all the difference. 

Mark says it best:

"I've learned that the hard way. It's the structure of the student-centered classroom that creates a powerful, exciting learning environment that students actually enjoy. The so called five-minute teacher-who should be nearly invisible-is part of the fun...Five minutes can be the most important part of the students' day. When students are poised to learn something new, five-minutes can prepare them for experiences that open doors and open minds. The trick is making those five minutes count."

Mark goes on to offer suggestions on making those five minutes count. Like the use of video to serve as a springboard to conversation or opening class with guiding questions that get kids thinking. He also explains the concept of being a guide on the side, being a coach rather than a teacher. As Mark points out (and I agree) when you move from teacher to coach you allow for more student direction in learning. 

There is also a great section on helping teachers develop their own Toolkit of Student Driven activities. Mark offers several suggestions for technologies and platforms that can help promote student-centered learning and engage students during and after the five minutes. 

Like the other ASCD Arias books, this was a quick and easy read, full of great ideas and suggestions to turn it up a notch in the classroom. For $6.99 for the digital edition this is a great edition to any professional library. 

 

My Comment

Hello, my name is Emma Boren. I am a student at the University of South Alabama in EDM 310. Thank you for sharing your ideas on how to create a lesson plan. I am an elementary education major, so I will most likely be with the same students all day, for each subject. I feel like I would need to grab their attention at the beginning of each subject lesson. Any ideas on how to keep young children's attention all day long?

 

Blog Post #14

The blog post I would incorporate into EDM 310 would be to go sit in a classroom (appropriate to the grade/subject you want to teach) observe and write a post about how that teacher used technology in the classroom.


Blog Post 14

I hope to teach 1st or 2nd grade one day, so I sat and observed in a second grade class.

This teacher used different forms of technology. She used her smart board a lot. She also used YouTube videos, and the kids used computers for accelerated reader.

One of the subjects the teacher used her smart board for was language. She would first pull up YouTube videos on the smart board about the area of speech they were covering that day; nouns, verbs, adjective. She would let the children watch it, and then she would ask them questions about what they learned. She would then pull up lists of words for the students to identify. For example, one day, they were covering singular and plural nouns. The student called on would read the word then come up to the smart board and write whether it was singular or plural. Another activity she did was allowing the students to come to the smart board and change the singular nouns to plural.

I also observed the smart board being used for math. There would be problems on the board, and the students would come up and write the answers on the board.

During center time, the students could use the smart board to practice their spelling words. They used a program that allowed them to pull letters onto the white space. Center time also allowed the students to get on the computers to take their AR tests. Lastly, sometimes, the students were allowed to use iPads to play educational games on during center time.

While this teacher did not have a class blog, I still think I observed good use of technology. It still played a big role in her classroom, and I believe I got some good ideas to use in my future classroom.

Smartboard Part B- Derain Group

Blog Post #13

Shane Koyczan by Emma Boren
Number 8 on Ken Robinson’s top 10 ted talks is Shane Koyczan’s To this day... for the bullied and beautiful. In this video, Koyczan talks about his life growing up. He says that he was bullied, and then he became who he did not want to be; a bully himself. Through this whole video, Koyczan tells his story. He tells about his dreams growing up, what he wanted to be. He says that not only was he called names but his dreams were called names too. Stupid, silly, unrealistic, and more. He wanted to be a writer, and when he was told that was unrealistic, he said he wanted to become a wrestler. That was silly they told him. This was his whole life. He lived with his grandmother who would make him porkchops when he felt sad. To Shane, porkchops were the same thing as a karate chop. His grandmother thought it was cute, but it ended up getting them into some trouble. When he fell out of a tree and bruised his whole right side, he and his family life got investigated. When asked Shane told them “my grandmother gives me karate chops when I’m sad.” When the story got out and everyone figured out what really happened, he began to get called porkchop. After telling his story, he goes into his poem. His poem is a story about three different kids who lived their lives being bullied. They are depressed, they get put on pills for their depressed and everyone around them thinks they are pill poppers. They consider suicide. They try to figure out how to be invisible, how to make it stop. This video was so eye opening to me about the issues with bullying. I knew it went on, but I never knew the extremity it went to. Shane Koyczan’s talk can teach people a lot about the way kids feel when they get bullied.

By: Tracy Armstrong
#6 on Ken Robinson's top ten ted talks
One of Sir Ken Robinson’s favorite ted talks is of Mae Jemison addressing the need to teach both the arts and science together. It amazes me that eleven years after Ms. Jemison gave that talk that we are still discussing the fact of whether we should teach art along with the sciences or not. Ms. Jemison says and science that art are manifestations of the same thing. They are avatars of human creativity. They spring from the same source. In other words, we must learn that they cannot and should not be separated. The most profound statement that Ms. Jemison said was that,” science provides understanding of a universal experience and the arts provides universal understanding of a personal experience. Both requires visions that must be put into action. They are both equally important because the actions will be builded upon by future generations. We have a responsibility to contribute to the legacy of our country. We cannot afford to fail to act for the future. We can learn from this ted talk by Ms. Mae Jemison that our understanding of the arts and sciences must be expressed and shared in order to further the growth of our nation.

By: Shakeya Andrews
In A Girl Who Demanded School Kaneya spoke about her life growing up. When she was 5 years old she found out that she was engaged and after that she spent most of her time learning how to become a good wife for her soon to be husband. Kaneya’s mother raised her while her father spent most of his time away working. When her father came around he would abuse her mother and take the money that the family had earned but he never helped his family out. Her mother did not have the opportunity to get an education, which is why she pushed her children to go after their dreams and get an education. Kaneya’s dream was to become a teacher so she worked hard while she was in school to fulfill her dreams, but she didn’t have a chance at continuing her education because she knew that she would be getting married soon. Kaneya teaches us that no matter what obstacle we face, continue to go after what we want because we can do whatever we put our mind to. Even though she did not get the chance to continue school and become a teacher when she wanted to, she still chased her dream . Kaneya asked people to help support her so that she could take a trip to America to finish her education and surprisingly people were willing to help. She persevered because she knew that she had the right to get her education. In spite of challenges kaneya was granted the opportunity to finish her education. I learned that there are four things that we must carry with us when we are trying to reach our goals. In order to reach our goals we must be the best we can be, be confident, be bold, and be fearless. Kaneya says, “If you can change your world, you can change your community” such powerful words and very encouraging.

C4K November Summary

November 10
This week I was assigned to comment on Antonio's blog. The students had to read an article about someone nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and answer the questions.

WHO?
Malala Yousafzai

WHAT?
She has been nominated for a nobel peace prize

WHERE?
She is from pakistan but is living in england at the moment

WHEN?
Will find out at the end of october if she has W0n

WHY?
Because she was fighting for education for girls in pakistan

HOW?

Headline: Malala nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Summary: Malala Yousafzai has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her peace and friendliness. She's been nominated for fighting for education for girls, in Pakistan. She is from Pakistan but she's currently living in England. We will find out at the the end of october if she wins. Shes still fighting for education for girls.

Opinion and Why:
What do you think about this news and why I was very surprised that girls don’t have the same education, and how she's the youngest girl that has been nominated for the Nobel prize.

Questions
What are some questions this article has prompted that you may like to find out the answers to
How is the education like for girls in pakistan.

Antonio's Blog

My Comment

Hey Antonio! My name is Emma Boren, I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I am an education major, wanting to teach elementary school. I enjoyed reading your blog, I liked the way that you divided it into boxes to separate the sections. You did a good job at telling us who she is, and what she did. Keep up the good work. If you would like to visit my blog feel free! www.borenemmaedm310.blogspot.com

November 17

This week I was assigned to comment on the blog post about Dr. and Mrs. Strange's visit to Mrs. Yollis's class on her class blog.

Dr. and Mrs. Strange Visit!

Last week, we enjoyed hosting some special classroom visitors. Dr. Strange and his wife, from Mobile, Alabama, were in our neck of the woods, and the two stopped by to say hello and spend some time learning with us.

Dr. Strange and Mrs. Yollis had never met face-to-face, but know each other through blogging.

Mrs. Yollis "met" Dr. Strange through educational blogging. He teaches at the College of Education at the University of South Alabama. His preservice class, called EDU310, helps teach new educators how to integrate technology meaningfully in the classroom.

As an educator of educators and a lifelong learner himself, Dr. Strange was interested in seeing how young students are using blogging and ipads to enhance learning.

First, we learn a little about the Alabamans. Students asked open-ended questions and our visitors responded. An open-ended question is a question that cannot be answered with a yes or a no response. Open-ended questions require more thinking and are generally more interesting.

After the introductions, the students broke up into groups. Some students worked on typing skills for five to ten minutes. Here we see a student giving a demonstration about how the AlphaSmart typing program works. Look how her fingers are exactly on the home row! Go girl!

Several groups of students were working on a project using PuppetPals Directors Cut. Although this version isn't free, the class enjoys the historic puppets and sets that come with the version.

Mrs. Yollis' Labrador retriever, Buck, is a popular PuppetPal puppet. Here students show Dr. Strange how they can use the iPad to copy the photo of Buck from our 365 Blog, import the photo into PuppetPals, and then trace around Buck to make him a talk show host puppet! Here you can see that Buck will be interviewing Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and President Lincoln. I wonder what the topic of the show will be? The PuppetPal video will be published soon!

Students who weren't creating a PuppetPal project were blogging. Some great conversations are happening in the comment sections.

Alas, it was time for Dr. Strange and Mrs. Strange to leave. We hope we meet again in person or in our blogging online community!

What did you enjoy about the visit?

What would you like Dr. Strange's teacher to know about blogging?

Mrs. Yollis's Class Blog
(The blog post also included pictures and demonstration videos throughout)


My Comment:
In my comment, I told Mrs. Yollis my name and that I was in Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class. I told her that I was really glad they finally got to meet because Dr. Strange had told us a little bit about her class and was very impressed with her students ability to use the 21st century technology. I continued by telling Mrs. Yollis that I plan to incorporate technology, blogging, and other programs like PuppetPal into my classroom. Lastly, I thanked her for sharing the details of Dr. and Mrs. Strange's visit with us.