Book Trailer Project

Blog Post 9

Mr. McClung’s Blog Post 09-10

Ok Mr. Joe McClung is one funny man. I looked at how long his blog post was and I just wanted to cry! I thought geeze I didn’t realize that a person could learn all of this in one year! As I started to read his Blog Post from 09-10 I got really intrigued, and I just could not stop reading. It’s like my eyes were glued to the screen while I was reading his words.
Mr. McClung is a very interesting teacher and even though he was fairly new at the teaching thing when this blog was posted it seems like he has it put together. He explains that at the beginning of the year he started out with a bunch of challenges. Challenges such as; going from middle school to junior high, from science to social studies, and even different schools. He didn’t know exactly what he was doing and he became very dull.

A teacher I would assume we all would dislike. He woke up one morning and decided that he hated the way he was teaching, and changed what he was doing.
As the school year went on Mr. McClung noticed that his students were not doing what he wanted them to. Not in the sense that they weren’t doing their work, but they were not thinking for themselves. A big NO NO for Mr. McClung! He decided to change up in a way that students would feel that there were no right or wrong answers.
Mr. McClung discusses that the most important thing that a new teach could do is get a school mom.

These are “veterans” of the school. They will assist and stand up for you when you need them.
Passion for your job is very important as Mr. McClung stated. Having the passion for your job no matter what topic or area you are teaching will better your year. Also let the students have responsibilities this will be able to help your alleviate some of your stress and help better your time management.

Time management making sure that you have enough time scheduled to go into depth with your subjects is another biggie that he talked about.
Lastly Mr. McClung talked about making sure your work is focused on your students and not on anything else. When your attention is focused else where your teaching can start to slip. Making not only the other grown-ups suffer, but making your students suffer as well.
Believe it or not this is a summary of Mr. McClung's blog post. It is very long, but very interesting. I learned a lot by just reading this blog post! Mr. McClung made very interesting points! No matter what subject you are teaching you should always make it interesting. How are the students suppose to learn anything or find anything interesting if you don’t find it interesting.
Making them think for themselves! My sister to this day (she is 14) still looks for answer from me.

Even though the majority of the time I have no idea what she is talking about. The students want to make sure that they have the right answer, but it comes down to there is not always a right or wrong answer.
I started subbing this month, and it has been… eh… not the easiest job in the world! Mr. McClung is absolutely correct you must find a school mom. They will be there for you, show you the ropes, and be able to listen when you need them to. I had so many teachers come into my rooms amazed that I was keeping the students quiet and doing their work. They told me if I ever needed anything that they had my back, and that meant a lot to me! I love being able to say I DO NOT HAVE TO DO THAT!

Giving students responsibilities makes them feel important and special. I actually asked a student to pass out papers, or be the line leader. I instantly had a reaction everyone wanted to do it, and they took it pretty seriously.
The students are the most important thing. This is why were are becoming teachers! Not to start up fights or meaningless drama. Our students need our help to learn and stay focused to better their lives. We will always keep progressing we just need to be progressing in the right areas.

Mr. McClung’s Latest Post

In Mr. McClung’s latest post from 11-12 he discusses many things. He explains that this year he started worrying more about his peer’s opinions.

Something that he has never done before. Something that he has never wanted to do. It took him a while to get out of his “funk” and get back to his regular teaching. This is because if you feel like you are doing well you will not do well.
He also talks about challenging yourself as a teacher. If a teacher were to teach the same thing year in and year out they start to become lazy and boring. If a teacher starts to challenge himself/herself they will than become exciting and vibrant. It is like colors there is more then just black and white.
I think he is right. Worrying about others instead of doing what you know has worked isn’t the right way to go. You are not there to teach your peers you are there for the students.

Making challenges will always get someone to better himself/herself no matter what job they are in. I really did enjoy his blogs.

Symbaloo Rocks!

First Summary

I downloaded Symbaloo today. I feel like the world is at my fingertips. No longer do I have to go and find my links. I logged into all of my accounts and I was able to access them by one click. No more of having to worry about my passwords or usernames. This makes life easier. I then added my blogger account and USA's website. What's even better than that is that I still have more buttons to fill in. I can also add in websites from teachers or professors that I have been reading about. Symbaloo is a great way to keep up with information, sports, and events. I just have to think about what more I can add to make my life a little easier. Thank you Symbaloo!

Blog Post 8

Multimedia Savvy? I think so!

I have always loved paperback books. I loved opening a new book and being able to smell the paper! Flipping each page and hear the beautiful crisp sound as it folds over. Richard E. Miller described the he has the same feelings I do about books. In his video This is How We Dream Part 1 and 2 , Mr. Miller describes his affection with books, but he also explains their limitations. As Mr. Miller explained there are millions upon millions of books. And thousands of libraries, but the problem is not every library has the same book. Therefore some student, teacher, child, or adult is missing out on different information.

Mr. Miller brings up the Internet. Describing how there is infinite knowledge and ways to research the riches of the world by using the internet. I have to agree with him. Books are wonderful and very handy, but how useful is a book if you cannot locate it? Not only that, but everything lives forever online. Not like the library where books get worn out, torn, or lost. Therefore losing more information that was needed.
Being able to see pictures is wonderful! You get to visualize and depict the research you are looking up. What is even better than pictures is a video! Being able to watch a favorite war scene or seeing the emotions as a speech is given. A book cannot give a person this luxury! How about being able to hear everything such as; cannons going off, Martin Luther King giving his speech, different types of songs. This is all possible with media learning.
I found out in Part 2 that with ITunes U a person can be able to listen to different lectures! This something completely new to me! I kept thinking, “Man if I would have known about this earlier I would have turned this on for my dad. Instead of reading him his Orthopedic books in the car.” This is very useful especially for people, such as myself, who are always on the go. This is a new exciting way for not only younger students to learn, but older students as well. This is just another way to integrate the internet into our daily lessons. I think that this will be useful for anyone who can work a computer!

Carly Pugh’s Blog Post #12

I think that Carly Pugh went over the top on her assignment. It was an excellent assignment and a great idea! I think that she was where Mr. Miller was on the idea of multimedia due to her wanting to use YouTube and other types of visual aides. As she said in her post she thinks that students and others can learn better by using some type of visual.

This is also a great idea to help answer the question “Why am I becoming a teacher?” This is the most important question for an educator! If an educator doesn’t have a good reason, or doesn’t know why he/she wants to become a teacher he/she is in the wrong career field. I think that this would have been a great assignment to try in anyone’s classroom! I hope I can come up with something that great when I think of what Dr. Strange should have assigned.

My Ideas!

In the first video EDM310 For Dummies I just thought it was the funniest thing! I couldn’t stop laughing and then when I did I watched the video again and started laughing all over. I think that having a book for this class is a great idea! I would like to think of myself as computer savvy, so I do not think that I would need to use it all that often. Others on the other hand can become so frustrated that this would ease their pain.
In the video The Chipper Series it seems like Chipper is not being a good student and following up with her work. She ends up being all the things that a student shouldn’t be. Such as Chipper procrastinating or blaming Dr. Strange for not “teaching” her. Eventually she drops out and thinks of a really bad idea that ends up terribly. Then she ends up becoming an awful teacher!

I think I would like to create something along the lines of two different students living two different lives. One lives his life studying and working hard. While the other one goofs off and enjoys his/her time. Then see where they end up in 20 years! That would be cool.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn

I have learned a lot in just this class. There is so much out there that no one realizes is out there! For instance a lot people do not realize that Facebook and Gmail accounts can be academic. This is because no devices are allowed in school. Now do not get me wrong I do not want my child to be on an IPAD when he is only 5 years old! However, I do want my child to be able to type 50-100 words a minute. This is because as implied in the video Learn to Change, Change to Learn technology is becoming a more vast resource. We use computers to give tests, to write paragraphs, to do research, and other things.

When we have our students who go out and use email, Facebook, and twitter to communicate and research how are we to tell them to turn it off? Now, I do want to put it out there that the majority of the students will want to use their devices for other means. This means that they will not being using them for educational purposes. I see the good and the bad of being able to use technology and not using technology.

Scavenger Hunt

I think that in the Scavenger hunt the tool that would be almost like Facebook or Twitter is the community tools. This tool allows teachers to communicate with students or parents any time anywhere. This would allow the students to ask a question after or before school hours. Or allow parents to see what assignments his/her child is suppose to be accomplishing. This will also be able to keep assignments from being turned in late.
The Powerpoint was made by Prezi. This slideshow miracle allows students and teachers to use its’ services for no charge. Of course that is only for the basic. Get this if you want to up to the highest level the price is… drum roll please…. $4.92 a month! That is just amazing to be able to use such a wonderful service for such a low price! I think one of the video tools apps that I like the most is the Animoto. This application can be used with music or your own voice. It can help teach lessons in an interesting way.
To see my comic click here
I created my poll:

Family on PhotoPeach

Mr. Warlick's Post

Week One

When I was reading Mr. Warlick’s blog post he was discussing how he was listening to his regular podcast by Steve Hargadon. Mr. Hargadon was talking about whether or not political parties were discussing education. His response was “NO!” and that got Mr Warlick thinking “Should we really expect them to when they aren’t educators?” He states that education is a sore subject and that politicians do not talk about it if they do not have to. He finds this outrageous because they are “amateurs” what do they know what we need in the classroom?

My response to him was they do not know. They discuss the topics that they know will get out votes. As I said to Mr. Warlick I have a one-year-old son and I do not want him getting his education in the 49th worst educational state. Something needs to be done about our educational system! There is no reason what so ever that China and India should be trampling us with knowledge. It is also because we put so many restrictions on what can and cannot be taught. Some students do not even know what Darwin’s Theory is until high school. This is because it tramples on the first Amendment. Education is important and I know that Mr. Warlick and me are not the only ones that think it.

Week Two

In Dr. Warlick’s second post that he mentions that in the New York Times newspaper there was a quote from Arne Duncan declaring a war on paper textbooks. Dr. Warlick asks the question if we are declaring war on the wrong item. He proclaims that it is not what the children carry in and out of the classroom, but the experiences they get out of it. He wants Mr. Duncan not to declare war on paper, but to declare war on anything that doesn’t help our students learn.

I agreed with him! I posted that even though there is a convenience of the tablets and IPods, textbooks are still very useful. They will never lose your data or stop running if the battery gets to low. On the other hand technology is just plain out handy you can have multiple books on a small, or medium hand sized device. I love being able to just carry my laptop or tablet around and have the world at my fingertips. I explained that it does not matter what we think is better. We are not the ones learning the material. It is up to the students to choose which is better for them.

Blog Post 7

Networked Students

When watching the video “Networked Student” by Wendy Drexler I was amazed at all of the information that was provided. I realize that Google, Yahoo, and Bing can give a vast amount of knowledge for research, but there are other sources than those I have listed. As mentioned in this video there are ways to do research on an IPod, Computer, and ITunes. A student can literally find information about any topic at any time. This just leaves the question “Why would a student need a teacher’?
Well the teacher is there to, as Alex has stated in his video, offer guidance when the student gets in a jam. This is a very important for a student to be able to go to

his/her teacher and ask questions. For instance if a student finds different opinions on a certain topic, which one should he/she go with? Well the teacher can offer his/her assistance to allow the student to get better information on that topic. The teacher can help sort out the false information from the factual information.
Another reason is the teacher shows how to communicate properly and ask respectfully for help from professionals. If the student does not know how to communicate with his/her classmates this could be a big issue. The students won’t be able to compare and contrast notes with others. This would lead to not getting correct information.
The teacher is also able to help the students turn the search into a scavenger hunt. This makes the topic interesting and fun. In a way it is sort of like a game! Who can find out the most accurate information on a certain topic. Even though we have a lot of resources to receive information teachers are needed for many different reasons.

BUTTONS!

In the video Welcome to My PLE I was in shock. The students have so many buttons on their computers. The buttons are all gateways to knowledge! You push one button you escape to a blog. Push another and you land in places you have researched for a topic. Doing school work this way is just wonderful! It is neat, organized, and cool. This gives the students the freedom and responsibility that they crave when they are young. Students feel that since they have the freedom they are willing to do the work

accurately and on time. This is a fun and interesting way to learn. I can see my students getting excited over something like this and I would love to put it in my classroom some day!

Project 8

Blog 6

When I saw that the video The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch was over an hour long I dreaded watching it. After the first time I viewed it I had to watch it again and again. I believe that I watched the video at least 3 times. I thought it was very good, sad, exciting,

funny, and heart throbbing. Randy Pausch made mention to a few things that I would love to put in my classroom. One of topics he mentioned was about fundamentals being a necessity in learning the “big stuff”. I agree with him whole-heartedly on this subject. How are you supposed to understand how to read without learning the alphabet? How are you supposed to know how to figure out an equation without knowing how to add? Fundamentals are the single most important lesson a teacher can teach a student. This is due to fundamentals being the key components that make up the “big stuff”.

Another idea I agree with Dr. Pausch about is his idea of the Brick Wall. I have had a lot of brick walls in my life. A lot of them were really hard to overcome, but I managed to do so. Every student is going to have brick walls in their life. Some of them harder than others, but it is the ones that get over that brick wall that shows you their determination. Finding a way through that Brick wall shows how

badly they want something. I think that if a teacher can find that something that will push the students to get over that brick wall they are doing a great job! Just like John Snoddy said, “If you wait enough time some people will tend to impress you”.

Having fun is one of Dr. Pausch’s main topics he pushed. I have the exact same view as he did. There is no point in learning anything if it isn’t fun to learn. A student won’t retain any information if all he/she receives is a lecture. If a

teacher were to throw something fun at them, such as a game, they will be keener to learn. I was one of those students who couldn’t just sit back and listen to a lecture. So I will not be the kind of teacher to sit back and give a lecture. I will be a Tigger of the group of teachers. A quote from Dr. Pausch stated, “Try to get kids to have fun, while learning something hard” and it is the truest statement I have ever heard.

One last thing that I certainly agree with him on is giving feedback. No one is a mind reader. No one can tell what he/she is doing right or wrong. Giving feedback is one of the most crucial components a teacher has. Giving feedback can also be very tricky, especially when you do not use the right tone. How a teacher

says something can make or break a student. So be nice about the feedback, but make sure the mistakes are corrected. Dr. Pausch was a brilliant man, and I am very glad that I got the opportunity to learn more about him.

TimeToast Timeline

September Summaries

On September 20th I read Nikita’s blog. She wrote about a man that I have never heard of, named Richard Whitehead. He is a double amputee who won the 2012 Olympics for Britain. I was very thankful for Nikita’s blog because I was able to learn about a person’s perseverance and determination. Richard Whitehead won the 200m race in record time this year. He also holds two different records for double amputees. He is a very impressive man and I enjoyed reading and learning about him.


Also at the end of September I posted on Mr. Capps blog. Mr. Capps was discussing how if the students kept going over their material, they would be able to be more fluent in their reading. I told him that I agreed with him. I explained that I use to be dyslexic and was terrible at reading. My dad kept pushing me and pushing me to try my hardest and do better. Eventually, I learned to get past my dyslexia.
Mr. Capps had a great idea that if there was more engaging material the students wouldn’t mind reading it. So Mr. Capps put a funny poem on his blog calld “The Armpit of Doom,” by Ken Nesbitt. This poem was so funny it made my sides hurt from laughing. I explained to Mr. Capps that it was a wonderful idea to have the students read poetry. Not only does it help them with fluency, it also will give them a good laugh!