Blog Post #14

Teaching Can Be A Profession

1.Better academic training for prospective teachers
Almost half of the states cannot claim a math program that prepares the student like some of the programs in the higher performing nations.
Math is one hard subject for most students. I do agree with this statement, in that there should be more training in Math for prospective teachers. It could be as easy as adding Calculus to an Education major studies.

2.New approach to recruiting teachers
This would change things so that not everyone with a college degree should be allowed to teach, only the top third of graduates.
This statement follows #5. I do not agree with the top third of graduates, but I do believe in setting an exam with certain standards that you would have to score a certain score on. Coming from a small town, I always thought the idea of teachers rotating schools within a certain mile radius should be required. Each year or every three however you want to do it, teachers would rotate, giving every student a variety of teachers and keeping away from politics and playing favorites.

3.Change how teachers are rewarded
This would make it to where keeping a job would be related to competency and not seniority.
Well, the true reward that comes from teaching would be seeing your students succeed and graduate. I agree with some states on the raises and benefits, only if your test scores are growing. I believe the teacher should be held accountable of their students learning or not learning enough.

4."Teachers establish their own board to police the profession"
Teachers would set the standard for removing incompetent teachers. "Merit-based career ladder" would create promotion based on specialty exams.
I do not believe this would work. I believe it would turn into politics within the school and they could end up removing teachers that just don't fit in. I believe in a higher power such as a board, like it is today.

5.Demonstrate mastery before having college graduates be aides
I agree with this statement. To me, this statement suggests that although students graduate with a degree, there should be some kind of mastery exam or board test they need to pass. To be a teacher and teach your students what they need to learn, you yourself has to have that knowledge.

6."Teachers would abandon their support for mandatory assignment of kids to neighborhood schools"
I would say this refers to students staying in their district to go to school. I am from a small town and out of the entire county, there was one city school, and it had all the goods (laptops, smart boards, extracurricular activities) that all the other schools in the county, including mine, did not have. So, this made a lot of parents that could afford it, to take their children out of district to get an education. To make it where everyone is getting an equal education, I believe funds should be split equally between each county school.

C4K Summary November

My first student this month was Sino. Sino is from South Africa. Her class was learning about poems. They were instructed to come up with their own simile and metaphor. Her simile was about the moon. She used how the moon shines bright at night. Her metaphor was about a horse.


My second student was Katelyn. She loves volleyball and softball! Her latest blog post was on her classroom's print making project. In this project, they carve a picture in the aluminum, then transfer that picture on the paper. Katelyn chose to draw a volleyball, of coarse!


My third student was Brynn. Brynn talked about their quarters at school being over and beginning a new one. She goes on to explain that her vollyball team was a great team and experience for her. They almost won, but lost at the finals. Also, she enjoys her art class. She says it is a way for each student to express themselves in the way they feel best. The book fair was also coming to her school. Of coarse she was excited for that as well. In Brynn's blog, she uses some vocabulary words that she highlights in bold font.

Blog Post #13

Why is EDM 310 so important and/or necessary for myself as an education major?

Now that the end of the semester is near, I would like everyone to take some time and reflect on their time spent in EDM 310. Also, how the technological tools you have learned about are going to be helpful to you in your career.

I have heard the rumors about EDM 310 and how it can seem "useless" or just be a lot of nonsense stuff that you're never going to use, but I believe this is wrong. EDM 310 has opened my eyes on just how important and useful technology is in someone's education. The newness jitters definitely got to me at first, but once I saw the light, my mind was in awe. First off, to be technology illiterate is a very popular trait. Newcomers to technology feel overwhelmed, stressed, and just want to give up, but once you get the hang of things, all seems quite easy. So, in that state, I believe in starting the use of technology in elementary schools, heck might as well start at preschool! A child's mind is quite susceptible to learning new things and catching on quick. EDM 310 has taught me so much about technology and the different tools offered in schools to start teaching young children.

EDM 310 is very important tool also in that Dr. Strange teaches the concepts of no "burp back" education. This concept summed up basically to instead of continuing on with the method of teaching for memorization to test, teach with Project Based Learning (PBL) method. Project Based Learning is a concept where, you as the teacher, come up with a realization to everyday life that might relate to the certain subject topic you're teaching, and give the students an opportunity to be involved with one another on a project and research. Instead of testing, we can assess the students' projects and research to see just how much they might have learned about that certain topic.

Project #12

Blog Post #12

Assistive Technology

Sarah
I chose to read up on the different resources that Apple has available for special education students. Apple Support for Special Education. It is absolutely incredible to see the amazing ways that Apple is reaching out to make resources for special education. The “Speak Selection” is simple but so incredibly helpful for students who need to hear a word as it’s being read, this can help with comprehension for a wide range of learners! The Speak Selection can read text messages, emails, ebooks, and web pages. This is just one of many great options Apple has for special education students. Another resource that I saw was one that I just recently heard about in my EDM 310 class, iBooks. iBooks Author is where teachers can create a customized learning material to support each and every learning need. iBooks have a variety of features like 3D images, video, and audio. I believe this could be a great resource for special education students, because of the ability to customize the learning material, and that is so incredibly important because each student is different and will learn differently. There are many more wonderful examples of resources that Apple has available for special education students, and I believe that Apple has done an excellent job using technology as a fundamental way of learning for special education students.
Katie
I chose the video about teaching introductory math to young blind students by means of a touchpad. This video was Teaching Math to the Blind. In this, Professor Art Karshmer at the University of San Francisco offers a solution to the issue that blind students face in learning math. Here is a simple example of this issue: sighted students see an addition problem with one addend on top of the other with the sum underneath while blind students can only see the problems straight across on one line. This is a problem because the students are not able to develop a strong foundation in math and therefore are severely limited in their potential to go into certain career fields in their future. With the touchpad described in the video, the blind students are able to learn math more like a sighted student would. This would help them learn fundamentals of math better so they have a better chance with it in their futures.
Meagan
I chose to watch the video Teaching Mom What Her Deaf/Blind Child Is Learning On the iPad. In this video, the teacher is showing one mother Voiceover for iPad. She is teaching the mother how her deaf/blind child is using his/her iPad. She goes over the different ways to use and explore through the iPad with just the touch of their fingertips. I think that this is a great way for the parents to see just how much their child can accomplish with technology, no matter the child’s disability. I suggest all teachers that will have students that might have these disabilities go through an iPad training as this mother did to experience what their student/students will.

C4T #3 Summary

Mr. Bennett is a teacher focused on digital learning. He had published three books, and is furthering his education in a Masters program. Mr. Brian Bennett researched reflexes and the brain and spinal cords ability to pull back off a hot surface. He then went into how he found a topic to research. He explained that, as teachers, we often let our content knowledge get to us instead of searching our context knowledge. And, with that we often teach in a way where we're just explaining ourselves, instead of exploring our thoughts.



Mr. Bennett also posted on his blog about creativity and letting our minds discover it. No matter our different genes, or backgrounds, we are all capable of tuning in to our creativity. He explains that it takes practice to incorporate your creativeness in your work, and in your teaching. He goes on to explain that all his work might not be as creative as possible, but at the same time, his work is building the foundation for his students to explore in their creative side.

Project #10

Blog Post #11

What can we learn about teaching and learning from these teachers?

Back to the Future
I loved how he had his students make a blog post of what they learned through the projects. I feel that it was a great way to incorporate technology in the lesson. It's also just a new outlook on writing summary paragraphs. I, as a student, love the new technological outlook on my work in my schooling. It's a "new" but up and coming way to do school work. When he involved the student into his classroom even though she could not actually attend was a great and how he showed other students attending in the classroom. I'm positive that his involvement and care about her being a part of the classroom impacted her and other students greatly.

Blended Learning Cycle Blends online and classroom learning and combines it with the learning cycle (engage, explore, explain, expand, and evaluate).
6 Parts to his Blended Learning Cycle
1: Start with a question
2: Get the students to investigate and experiment
3: Show a video to students
4: Elaborate -suggested reading
5: Review -make sure students understand concepts
6: Summary -the way he does this is with a quiz


Super Digital Citizen I feel that the way he asked a question and then had the students talk among themselves about their different views before he put his input in is a great teaching strategy, and it also helps students relate and come together. Incorporating the comic books was a great way for the students to get creative while practicing their writing. It also had a great point behind the project about cyber safety.

Project Based Learning In the video, teachers show the beneficial factors of combining 2 or 3 curriculums into one lesson with technology. It gives the students a deeper understanding of standards they are suppose to be learning.

Project #14

Lesson Plan #2 Group 1 W6

Lesson Name:  Daily experience as a native American Category: Social Studies Grade Level: 5                       Lesson Number: 1 of 1 Date: Nov. 2,  2014

Alabama Standard(s): Distinguish differences among major American Indian cultures in North America according to geographic region, natural resources, community organization, economy, and belief systems. •  Locating on a map American Indian nations according to geographic region

Driving Question: What can be learned about the lives of native Americans through interviews and research?

Objectives: According to rubric in assessment.

Students should finish the project to a minimum 90% completion according to the rubric in the assessment.

Activities: An interview will be set up for the class as a whole with a specialist on Native Americans. This will be conducted through means of face-to-face video chat. During class time, the teacher will set up an interview via Skype that will be projected to where the whole class can see the specialist. The students will have the opportunity to have a Q and A session with him. After this the students will be separated into groups to decide what Native American group they will be assigned to. For a class of 24 students, the class will be separated into 4 groups of 6. All these students will work on the same tribe for the remainder of the project and will work together for a later part. The students will get together to choose a tribe to study. This tribe should be different from the tribes that were the 6 mandatory tribes from the last project. Also, the groups will have to choose different tribes than other groups. This is decided by a first come first some basis. The groups that inform the teacher first of their tribe will get to do their project on that tribe. From there, the students will conduct their own interviews with someone who can speak on behalf of their chosen tribe. An example of how to do this would to be to go to the tribe’s website and contact whomever is in charge of education as listed by the website. This person should be able to aid the student in finding an interview. This interview can be  conducted face-to-face, over something such as Skype, or even over email and needs to be a minimum of 5 questions. The students will create their own questions for the interview. The students will have to have their questions approved before the interview. Once the student has conducted the interview, their questions and a summary of the answers will be put online on the student’s blog. Also in this blog the students will have an “In the day of a life of ….” post. This might require some extra research. This part of the project will be done on an individual basis. From there the students will work collaboratively for the rest of the project. The students will get together to work on a presentation. This will be presented to the class and to other classes through participation in a school culture week that the class could help organize in another project.  The students will create a single presentation as a group based of their individual research. Also the students will have to artistically (using visual arts) create things important to that culture. An example of that would be a shoe that is original to that tribe could be created for this part of the project. Each group will have to create 3 different cultural pieces. At the end of the project the students will be required to create their own rubrics. With these rubrics the students will grade themselves individually, the members of the group, and the group as a whole cohesive team. This is for self-evaluation purposes. If the student finds it necessary, he may make 2 separate rubrics for self evaluation or group. The final grade will be decided by the teacher rubric.

Materials/ Equipment: Computer, internet access, a blog, visual art supplies (will vary from group to group).

Homework: Classtime will be given to work on this project, whatever is not finished will be done for     homework.

Assessment: 10 points 7 points 5 points 2 points 0 points Interview 5 questions and did interview and summary 3 or 4 questions did interview and summary 1 or 2 questions did interview and summary Questions no interview No questions no interview Blog Post Blog post completed (3 sections) and proper grammar Blog post completed (3 sections) with obvious grammar mistakes Blog post incomplete (less than 3 sections) and proper grammar Blog post incomplete (less than 3 sections) and obvious grammar mistakes No post Presentation Presentation created and delivered Presentation created and delivered at less than par standard Presentation created but delivery was uninformed (read from project) Presentation was incomplete No presentation prepared Visual Arts Creation 3 artistic creations with visible effort 3 artistic creations with obvious lack of effort 2 artistic creations 1 artist creation No creations Rubric Made rubric and did the evaluations Made rubric did 4 of 7 evaluations Made rubric and 1-3 evaluations Made rubric no evaluations No rubric no evaluations