Jaimie Ellis' EDM 310 Class Blog

Blog Assignment 15: Final Reflections

2010-12-16T19:23:00.003-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0eItk76nM0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Okay, I created this video and am posting it with my Droid. Which I think is fair impressive. Unfortunately that means the quality of the video is not that great. When I get access to the internet on a regular basis I will try and edit it so the video is rightside up, and I will properly embed it.

I will also write a proper link to my new blog. In the mean time: onestudentsjourney.blogspot.com.

Thanks everyone for the support these past few months!

Project #16: Final Project

2010-12-05T17:16:00.003-06:00

Ed Hughes and I created a Collaborative Blog for our Final Project together. The intent was to create a blog to act as the kind of blog we might have in a classroom for students to use as assignments. We collaborated in that I created the initial assignments and he (being a Special Education Major) added any kind of necessary changes for any students with special needs.

Project #10: PLN Final Report

2010-11-26T12:23:00.005-06:00

The following is a list of various part of my PLN that I have developed over this class. After the list I will provide a little explination of my thoughts and experiences with this PLN now and as I was (and continue to be) developing it.

Tools
iGoogle
My Twitter
My Facebook
My Delicious
And Stumble Upon

People I Follow
Jabiz Raisdana
Eric Langhorst
Dr. Strange
Mr. Chamberlain
Mr. Spencer
Mrs. Bayda
Mr. McClung
Wendy Drexler
Kelly Hines
Mr. Wesch
Mr. Needleman
Karl Fisch
As well as a few of my favorite authors: JK Rowling, Michael Grant, and Scott Westerfeld.
And Dr. Rogers and Dr. Faust of South Alabama on Facebook

Twitters about History and Education
History Channel
A blog about history
History books
Explore history
Teacher of History
Department of Education
New York Times - Education

Blogs on my Google Reader
EDM 310 Class Blog
My Own Blog
Project #16 Blog
Pencil Integration
At the teacher's desk
Cool Cat Teacher
Dangerously Irrelevant
Morgan Bayda
Mr. McClung's World
Pondering Paige
Speaking of History
Spencer's Scratch Pad
Teach Web
The Fisch Bowl
Trails Optional
For my job: Museum of Mobile
Plus: Dr. Roger's Non Educational BLog
And Postsecret, because I think it is a beautiful project.

Other Links I have found useful/interesting.
History for kids
The History Place
Edutopia
ACCESS
ALEX
Media in the lives of 8-18 Year Olds
Speech about the problems of Education
Comparing Blogs, Wiki's, and Google Docs

Explanation
The tools I have been using (listed above) are the ones I found best suited to me. I tried to use Symbaloo and Netvibes for awhile, but neither of them were exactly what I was looking for. The simplicity of iGoogle was what I really needed. I threw my mail, google readers, google docs, and a bookmarks page on there and it was perfeect. I also added a twitter and facebook feed there as well. I couldn't ask for more. I enjoy getting the blog updates as soon as they hit! I can even read them right on the iGoogle page. I began using delicious for bookmarking a little while back as well, but I haven't added any tags to the bookmarks yet. I'm not sure of the best way to tag yet. Any advice on that would be much appreciated. I also use StumbleUpon as a PLN tool. I can set the toolbar to only search for education topics or history topics, which has actually opened me up to find a plethora of good websites. (Added later to my delicious and google bookmarks.)

As far as my twitter page goes I have only recently become very active with it. I have been really excited by what I have found though. It has been nothing like what I expected it to be. Twitter gets a bad reputation for being a place where a bunch of self-centered celebs talk about themselves all day. And I fell into the trap of believing it. I'm glad I found my way out of the trap though, because my experience has been wonderful. A number of the teachers began following me back after I began following them. Even a couple took time out of the busy days to welcome me to Twitter and give me some advice. I didn't expect it given how many followers some of them have. It made me feel like part of a community.

Thanks everyone for all the help!

C4K #8-11

2010-11-25T14:31:00.003-06:00

C4K #8: Blog post by Ryanna. In this blog post she did an audio recording of her reading some words. It was pretty impressive of her to be able to read that well as a first grader! I told her how impressed I was with her reading and to keep up such a good work!

C4K#9: In Kelsey's Blog, she talks about how much fun she had during Halloween and how much candy she got. I told her that Halloween is my favorite time of year as well and that I hope she had fun. I also asked her what she was for Halloween and she told me she was a Zombie Prom Queen.

C4K#10: Cheyenne explains about Polynomials in the first part of her blog as she was assigned to do, then in the second part she lists the three things she is thankful for this Thanksgiving: Her family, friends, and education. I commented to tell her how pleased I was that she included her education as one of the things she was most thankful for. That is very impressive to me.

C4K#11: Chase talks about a skype session he had with Christopher Lee, and about learning that things are constantly changing in the world. I told him how cool it was that he got to Skype with someone so interesting and thanked him for the ideas about skyping with my students in the future.

C4T#4 Summary

2010-11-25T14:18:00.004-06:00

These past two weeks I have been assigned to comment on the blog Speaking of History, which has been a very fun read, by the way.

The first post to this blog was a presentation on how to build a working PLN, which I think we can all agree is a great tool for me given the nature of this class and the projects we deal with. For anyone who would like to take a look at it, I will embed it here:

MSTA 2010 Building A Personal Learning Network

View more presentations from South Valley Jr. High School / Park University.

In the post he also included some great links to his twitter account and other PLN related websites.

I commented on his post thanking him for the wonderful presentation and wishing that I could have seen the talk that went with it.

In the second post I commented on he shared another presentation about ways to help include parents in our classrooms. He recommends sending weekly schedules to parents through email and snail mail and having assignments which parents can get involved in. I commented to thank him for sharing and once again for sharing all the awesome links!

Project #15: Multimedia Project

2010-11-21T14:19:00.017-06:00

A Note before the beginning of the project. Like other projects I have done in this class I based this one around History and specifically the Holocaust, which is a topic I would one day like to teach at the high school level. I have used audio, video, as well as images from the time in order to bring out the true expression of Nazi hate. I hope that you are able to learn something from this, and I even hope to use it in my own classes one day in the future.

Nazi Propaganda: A Message of Hate
"Today I want to be a prophet again. If international finance Jewry within Europe and abroad should succeed once more in plunging the peoples into a world war, then the consequence will be not the Bolshevization of the world and therewith a victory of Jewry, but on the contrary, the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe." -Adolf Hitler from his Prophecy Speech Audio in link.

Nazi Propaganda was a big portion of the reason Hitler and other Nazi Officials were able to perpetrate the Holocaust. This multimedia project is designed around learning about the many different forms of Nazi Propaganda. Adolf Hitler made it quite clear in his 1939 speech quoted above that he was very willing to enact the Holocaust, now lets look at some of the methods he and others used to get the German people ready for the same thing. One of the most famous and oft quoted examples of this type of propaganda is titled "The Eternal Jew" which became both a video and a book that was used widely in German schools. The following is the end of the video portion.

However some of the most important aspects of the Nazi Propaganda Machine were newspapers and other magazines. Two of the papers with the largest distribution were the Völkischer Beobachter and Der Stürmer. The Völkischer Beobachter (The People's Observer) was the official National Socialist newspaper and when compared to Der Stürmer (The Stormer) would be considered quite tasteful. Der Stürmer was a paper which spouted extreme antisemetic articles. Including some of the following:

Ritualmord

Ritualmord, the headline for this issue of the paper, means ritual murder. Sometimes referred to as the "Blood Libel" was a medieval lie that was drudged up and used by the Nazis as one more thing to encourage the German people to hate the Jews. The story went that a Jewish person in a village would kidnap young Christian children and use their blood to make typical Jewish foods. This was an especially evil lie, as it is an important part of the Jewish diet to keep kosher, and one of the things that can immediately make any food not kosher is the presence of blood in the food.

Jews as defiler of women

A common depiction of the Jewish men was that of someone who was determined to take the "Aryan" women and defile their blood. This image shows a woman who is about to be destroyed by a snake marked with Stars of David. The editor of Der Stürmer liked to use naked women in his newspaper to spark interest and rage through his writing. Both of these articles were submitted at the Nuremberg war crimes trials after the war.

Octopus Cartoon

In addition to newspaper articles Jewish people were the target of many antisemitic cartoonists of the era. This particular cartoon was done by a man named Josef Plank, and shows an octopus with a Star of David over his head engulfing the entire world. This was a common "fear" of the Nazi party, that Jews were trying to take over the world. Cartoons like this sought to convince the German people that something must be done about this before it was too late.

NSDAP Posters.

During the Nazi Era a weekly poster was put out showing various Nazi ideals. As would be expected, ideas about the Jewish people were a common subject of these posters. You can find all of the quotes and images at the German Propaganda Archive. Here are a few of those quotes:

“A people that keeps its blood free of the Jews will live forever. Julius Streicher.” Gau Köln-Aachen (21 - 27 November 1938)

“A racially pure people, conscious of its blood, can never be enslaved by the Jews. Adolf Hitler.”Gau Weser - Ems (5 - 11 December 1938)

“"In Bolshevism, we see Jewry's attempt in the twentieth century to gain world domination. Adolf Hitler.” (#30, 20 - 26 July 1941)

“It is clear that Bolshevism was not a battle for a social ideal, but rather a political battle on the part of Jewry against the national intelligence of all peoples. Rosenberg.” (#32, 3 - 9 August 1941)

“"It was the Jews who discovered Marxism, and the Jews who have attempted for decades to revolutionize the world with it. Dr. Goebbels.” (#40, 28 September - 4 October 1941)

Finally, antisemitic sentiments were not a new thing. Hatred for the Jews was not invented by the Nazis and they weren't the first people to speak out against the Jews. Several famous people throughout history (often shockingly to us) have spoken out against the Jews. These historical figures made it easy for the Nazi's to reproduce these statements and show the people that hating the Jews is not only okay, but an important part of history. I will leave you today with a couple of these statements. Think on them the next time you are encouraged by a politician or other famous character from history to hate .

Martin Luther, from Concerning the Jews and Their Lies (1543)

First, their synagogues or churches should be set on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered or spread over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or stone of it. And this ought to be done for the honor of God and Christianity in order that God may see that we are Christians, and that we have not wittingly tolerated or approved of such public lying, cursing and blaspheming of His Son and His Christians. Second, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed. For they perpetrate the same things there that they do in their synagogues. For this reason they ought to be put under one roof or in a stable, like gypsies, in order that they may realize that they are not masters in our land.

Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary speaking on the Jewish People.

In short, in them we find only an ignorant and barbarous people, who have long united the most sordid avarice with the most detestable superstition and the most invincible hatred for every people by whom they are tolerated and enriched.

Additional Assignment #5: Pencils

2010-11-21T11:38:00.004-06:00

First let me say that I have loved Mr. Spencer's blog since I was first introduced to it as part of my Comments for Teachers. His posts are always insightful and amazing. Possibly my best experience to come out of this class so far. I have him as part of my PLN of course. Further, his pencil integration posts are a great method of discussion, like other forms of satire and metaphor these posts are so great because they allow the reader to interpret the purpose of the metaphor based on their own experiences. So maybe not all of us understood immediately that it was about technology, but we all took it to mean something for us. For example I took it to be about the negative aspects of an Educational Administration that is overbearing on the teacher, not allowing them to teach to their strengths. This doesn't mean that I didn't read it, and I really resent the implication that I cannot read because I saw something different than the immediate intention.

That being said, I still really enjoyed the rest of the pencil blog posts as well. Especially the most recent one about a boy who uses the pencil to create something beautiful. I still didn't really see the technology in this one either, sure the pencil was a metaphor for the computer, but I really think that it is the person who only sees technology that cannot read if you don't see more than that. It is barely about technology, what it is really about is a student who is encouraged to create despite their limitations. Don't limit yourself because of your over attention to technology. And don't limit what beauty your students can see because of your own blindness!

Blog Assignment 12

2010-11-21T11:01:00.003-06:00

Alex is the Alabama Learning Exchange. Their moto is : Quality for ever facet of learning. It is a place on the web teachers can go to look up lesson plans and see lesson plans other real teachers have used before them. As well as look through other resources such as podcasts and databases.

I think its a wonderful resource for teachers to have to gather ideas and work right along side other real teachers to help them plan the best possible lesson for their students. It will be great in helping me plan fun exciting lessons that also teach effectively.

ACCESS is the Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide. Likewise their motto is: Providing classroom courses and teachers via technology. It is a place that upperclassmen in high school can go their senior year and take college courses online.

This is great and I will be sure to let my students know about the availability of this, especially given that I plan to teach 11th grade history, so it gives me the opportunity to let them know about it in advance so they can get in on it from the beginning.

Project #14: Teach Someone Something

2010-11-14T12:45:00.001-06:00

Screencasts and videos online

Project #16: Progress Report

2010-11-14T12:06:00.003-06:00

For our project #16, Edward Hughes and I plan to create a Professional Educational Blog in which we collaborate on classroom assignment, myself as the regular teacher for the classroom, and he as the Special Education Inclusion Teacher. I will be making lesson plans and assignments in which students from an Eleventh Grade Class I (could potentially) teach, and Edward will be creating addenda to the assignments I provide that will help students with special needs better understand and complete the assignments.

I plan to have introduction posts for he and I, as well around three to five different lessons and assignments. In these assignments I hope to include a couple of different uses of technology in addition to the access to the blog as a form of technology in the classroom.

Project #12: Google Form

2010-11-14T11:28:00.003-06:00

Religious Questionnaire Responses

I was extremely interested in the responses of the questionnaire. First, the majority of people who answered were Catholic, the majority were Early Education Majors, were between 19 and 21, most would maybe consider working at a Private Religious School. Most felt only moderately knowledgeable about other religions, but were highly willing to learn more. Also most were a little uncomfortable teaching students or concepts that were different from their own religion.

There was a strong minority were extremely comfortable teaching against their religion, and I was impressed at how comfortable people said they were about learning about other religions. This tells me that though there may be some hesitation, most people feel fairly comfortable teaching who and what they are expected to teach, regardless of if they have a bit of hesitation about doing so. It is good to see this, because students from religions outside the norm also need to feel welcomed in their school environments, and it can be a big help for them if their teacher is welcoming to them.

C4K #3-7

2010-11-14T11:02:00.005-06:00

In this blog post from Little Voices Little Scholars the student I was asked to comment on created a short video of a volcano exploding, though clearly elementary I realized that it was something I still did not know how to do for myself. Clearly I was impressed, this student from Second Grade was able to do something I could not. I told her this, and that she should keep up her studies, that she would going on to bigger and better things with skills like that.

Alice L has a very nice blog for her class, she seems like a very nice, intelligent girl. It seems the original blog post I commented on no longer exists for me to correctly summarize, but like the other posts she has on her blog already I remember it was related to swimming.

In his class blog Dylan talks about the importance he has learned about friendship. I commented to tell him that I was glad he was learning about friendship and how important the skills he is learning are!

Jordyn B wrote a blog post about peace. Better yet after I went back to find my comment for this summary I saw the next thing she wrote, which was a rather awesome poem about a flying meat ball who goes to the magic store to buy a broom. I love it. As for the peace post, I commented to encourage her to never lose her enthusiasm for peace.

Skye is a lovely girl who had written a blog post about her upcoming ballerina performance. I was really excited when I read about this. I am always excited to hear about young people who are finding and working on skills and arts. I have always wanted to be able to do something creative like that, and my heart always swells with pride when I hear about younger people going after these things. I told her how excited I was for her, and hoped she would tell me how her performance went.

Blog Assignment 12

2010-11-14T09:54:00.004-06:00

The Assignment and Instructions

National Novel Writing Month (affectionately known as NaNoWriMo) is a month long event which takes place this month in November, NaNoWriMo.org is a non-profit organization which provides - in addition to the Write-athon - a project known as the Young Writers Program which allows educators and students all across the globe to participate in this life altering event. Within the program the creator Chris Batey has all sorts of how tos and lesson plans available to educators to help their students get started on writing a novel for the first time. I encourage everyone to visit http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/educators and look around at all the resources available. Consider how you could utilize this program in your classroom (even if you aren't an English Teacher) and how you could utilize the idea behind this program in your classroom even if you don't utilize the program itself.

Completing the Assignment

As a Secondary Education Major in the subject of History I think this would a great curricular or extra-curricular assignment for my students, we could write a collaborative novel together on a subject within History. For example, because I would like to teach an Elective class on the Holocaust, I could have different groups collaborating on a different aspect of the Holocaust. For example one group could write a story from the perspective of characters taking part in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, others could be writing from the point of view of a bystander during the Kristallnacht, and still another could be writing about the events taking place in Auschwitz II- Birkenau, the female lager at Auschwitz.

If I had 20 students they could be broken up into groups of four or five and each group could work together on a different aspect of history, and each person within the group could be responsible for a different aspect of the novel. This would get students interested in the subject because they would have to write creatively about something they are also learning about. In addition they would be excited about the prospect of become novelists by the end of it all.

In addition, I think this is something that can be utilized by not only English or History teachers, and not only upper level teachers. Although it is true that extremely young students might not be able to write prose, even elementary school students could participate by breaking it down so that the groups are much larger thereby having each student only responsible for a small portion of the project. And even Science and Math teachers can get on board by tailoring the writing project to concepts of Science and Math.

C4T#3 Summary

2010-11-14T09:23:00.003-06:00

In JT Spencer's blog post from October 24th, he talks about the Education System and how it is failing it's teachers. The blog post is in fact titled "What Teaching Does To Good Teachers." He doesn't mention No Child Left Behind, but it is clear that the act has influenced his thinking as a teacher. The following is the exchange that he and I had after I read his post.

"I am a Secondary Education major myself in college now. I know I want to teach, I know it very well. But I have always been afraid of the tests. I find myself in my own classes wondering how I will use the strategies my own professors use in the classes I will one day teach. I do this only to become broken hearted when I realize that I wont be able to use all or even many of them because I wont be able to design my own course or create my own tests. I am really honestly disheartened by it all. Often I find myself trying to figure out which directions to take in order to make this a lesser problem. Unfortunately my other choices seem just as bad for different reasons. Any advice?"

"@ Lynn Ellis:
I don't have an easy answer to this. I think a part of it is the mystery of when to conform and when to be a rebel. Fight for what you think is right, run with it and pay the cost. Other times, do what you're told and quietly rebel.

I get into trouble sometimes when it comes to things like curriculum. However, I am meticulous about the things that are somewhat silly (lesson plan formats, board configuration, etc.) Bottom line: does it take away my ability to teach or ruin how my students learn? If it does, I'll rebel. If not, I'll conform."

I love his advice, though it might not be what a school administrator would want me to hear, I do think he is right. I want to do the best for my student's regardless of what the world thinks is the best.

His next blog post was relating to his love of the Fall Season, how it affects his attitudes as a teacher, and his negative feeling on changing to a year round school system.

"My only issue is that where I live, there is no Fall, and there is no Spring. I wish there was, but it is still hot as blazes here where I am, and it will be right up until around Christmas time. Then it will get very cold very fast and stay that way until about the beginning of February, then it will get hot again until the next Christmas. Interestingly though, this is still a good reason for seasonal schooling where I am from. Students do not need to be cooped up in old buildings with failing air conditioners in the hottest parts of the summer. That is about the worst thing I can imagine."

Blog Assignment 11

2010-11-14T08:56:00.004-06:00

Ms. Cassidy's class uses some interesting techniques in helping each other learn. Although I think some of the techniques might be more tailored to younger student's which is not the type of students I would be teaching, but a lot of the ideas Ms. Cassidy uses in her classroom will be very helpful to teachers of older students as well. My favorite was the idea of creating video's. Mostly because I know that students tend to learn best when they are teaching others. If the students I teach are able to take a concept and learn about it, then prepare a video for the rest of the world to learn what he or she has learned. Then all of the students would have the chance to watch each other's videos and learn even more! Another idea that I have always planned since taking this class is the idea of using blogs as a way to submit assignments. Then allow the fellow students to collaborate and discuss the best ways to complete the assignments as well as comment on each others assignments for encouragement.

The main problems I see with these methods is that a number of the students may not have access to the internet on a regular basis at home, so I will very probably have to offer some class time in a computer lab on campus in order to supplement those that do not have the computer access at home, which may cause a problem. Another way I could change it would be to allow those students who do not have access to the computers at home to turn in hard copies of the assignments. One last issue that I see would be people who do not like to create videos, or are afraid of appearing in front of the camera. I can actually see that being a big issue for people, one thing that I would allow to combat this problem is allow the students to do it in whatever creative way that they would like as long as it is a video and they are teaching something, then they can do it. In that way, if they don't want to actually appear in person in the video, but have another student act it as they provide the script, or to use images while they provide the voice, they could do that as well.

Additional Assignment #3

2010-10-31T13:21:00.004-05:00

The most important part of the Sir Ken Robinson lecture is that our education system is based on a model that is many hundreds of years old, that the standards needs to be raised. I can't say that there was any part of the presentation that I disagree with. I do feel that ADHD is a legitimate disorder, but I fully agree that it gets diagnosed far too much. My teachers in elementary school tried to put me on Ritalin when I was six-years-old. Thankfully my mother said "She is six-years-old, of course she is hyper." Far too many people are put on Ritalin than is necessary. So I can't say I disagree on that point. Other than in this class I haven't been taught anything like this in the College of Education, most of my classes have been taught in a way that goes directly against what Sir Ken Robinson has been saying. One thing I would like to do is to ask my students how many uses can they think of for a paperclip! But I would also like to incorporate a lot of collaboration projects, and discussions to get my students interacting! I don't want to be that boring teacher in front of a powerpoint!

In a presentation with others I would very much like to be an organizer! I am good at figuring out who has to do what! So I suppose something like the author or idea generator. If I could resign the presentation and give others their job to do, that would be the position for me!

Blog Assignment 10

2010-10-31T12:33:00.004-05:00

Morgan Bayda

Less so now than in high school, I have always felt that school gets in the way of my education. One doesn't even have to use technology to use interaction. I am a Secondary Education Major in Social Studies and I am taking both parts of American History at the same time. In the first part my professor lectures from a powerpoint for the entire period, and all I do is sit in the dark and listen and take notes. I don't really even remember what we talked about last time I was in class, and I have never touched the textbook...

In my second part class the professor has assigned to engaging books for the class with alternate view points on the history, and for half the week we sit together as a class and discuss the differences between the two books with both the professor himself and our fellow classmates. Even before class even starts you can hear the others students talking amongst themselves about it. It is very exciting, and the professor encourages the students to email the authors of the books to ask about various issues that come up. This is the kind of thing that will help me remember what I learn for years and years!

Clearly this is a huge difference in education structures, and honestly which professor would you want to learn from?

Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home

This was extremely amusing, I hope that the author was only creating a caricature of the administration and that it was not an actual experience the author had been part of. That was a little over the top of the administration if it was in fact real. I hope to never teach with people who behave in such a way, but I'm sure that one day I will. People need to see that everyone has a particular teaching style no matter what the studies say.

Two Questions

The second question I ask myself on a regular basis in some format or another. The first question though now so much. I fear I maybe doing what the woman accused President Kennedy of though, trying to do to much with my life. School, Extra Curricular, Work, Military, Religion, Girlfriend. I wish I could just step back. I suppose what I think my sentence would be is: She helped people become what they always wanted to be.

Project #13: Smart board lesson

2010-10-29T11:34:00.001-05:00

Project #12: Skype Interview

2010-10-25T20:53:00.004-05:00

Additional Assignment #2

2010-10-24T13:17:00.001-05:00

In this day and age people can definitely teach themselves, even kids! I think that motivation and the tools to access the knowledge are all that is required to teach yourself. Computers along with an internet connection give the learners the access they need to these tools, and motivation is the driving force behind the learning. A problem or a question (or more than one) can often give that motivation, a curiosity to seek more information.

I find that the best motivation for myself and the way I would motivate others, is by finding something that creates that spark of desire to learn, a burning question that will lead to more questions. I don't think that those who don't want to learn ever will, they will simply memorize facts and puke it back up and then forget it. Finding the information yourself and enjoying the search is what will help you remember. I teach myself often, there are many things that I want to know, and I utilize many tools, blogs, and articles to gain the information. I have also learned to weed out the good information from the bad. Teachers have helped mostly by giving me the motivation by sparking the interest that has me off doing searches to learn more about the things they have presented to me in class.

This video prompted me to look up some information about Teachers Without Borders, I would like to work with them a little in the future if at all possible, I would love to get the chance to work with kids like the ones the the presenter in this video worked with.

Blog Assignment 9

2010-10-20T08:35:00.005-05:00

"What I've Learned This Year"

In his blog post, Mr. McClung has given some advice on continuous learning as a teacher, as well as the virtues of listening and teaching to your students, instead of yourself. He talks about how important it is for a teacher to really listen to what his or her student has to say. And further, if you ask me (and you did), it is important to make the distinction between listening to what your students say, but also to hear it. You can listen to the words, and that's great and everything. But I have had a professor before that I feel listen only to what I have to say, but I don't feel like they really hear me. They filters it all through their experiences and then do nothing at all with it. It is really difficult to get through these types of classes. That feeling of being heard facilitates many of the items on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which is my picture for this blog post.

By the way, not to derail this blog post away from Mr. McClung's blog post, but Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs could be a good guide post for teachers who want to help their students get the most out of class! A teacher should consider all levels of the pyramid when developing lessons for their students.

Project #11: Instructional Video

2010-10-17T17:14:00.001-05:00

Blog Assignment 8

2010-10-16T21:04:00.004-05:00

This is how we dream.

Dr. Miller teacher English at Rutger's University. In his two part video here "This is how we dream." He talks about how we have moved from pen and pencil. Instead of writing in pen and paper, and possibly being published and winding up one of the 3,000 other books published everyday as we learned from the Did You Know video. Now we can write on the internet and publish on the internet. We can even collaborate with others on the internet.

One of the things he brings up in a small part that I never thought of, was that before internet publishing a book was housed in a library, and when a book was checked out it was gone until the person who has it brings it back. With a book you read online, its still there for all to read, even when you have it. I want to bring your attention back to my first post where I talked about the book that I am writing about a girl who goes back in time to 1928. One of the things that is constantly on my mind when I think about it, is the sheer amount of information available to the finger tips in this day and age. For the main character from 1928, when she wants to know something she has to take the time to find the book that has the information, and then read through it to glean the information. Today if I want to know something, I pull out my phone and look it up on the internet.

Anyway, back to multimedia, I think I am fairly prepared to work with and write with multimedia. I may not be perfectly ready to jump into right this second, but I am definitely interested in learning more, and beginning to do the work. And I certainly will have my students doing so.

EDM310 Is Different

Well first, I suppose I should comment on the purpose behind these two videos. The purpose is to highlight the difficulty of EDM 310 as well as show the ways to (an not to) deal with the difficulty EDM 310 by teaching a little of what we have to do. In addition a bit of the point of the Chipper video was to encourage us as students to take responsibility for our work.

Second, I would really like to get involved in a few historical education videos. Teaching history in a much more fun and exciting way. A lot of history teachers make history an extremely boring topic, and I really don't feel like it has to be that way! If we could all just get out and have a little fun with it.

Critiques of Smartboards

Those are some negative, yet convincing arguments about Smartboards. To summarize the two blogs seem to feel that the Smartboards are relatively useless. The main fault seems to be in the cost of the boards, the bloggers say that all of the things that the Smartboard can do can be done with other means for free or much cheaper. This blogger on the other hand has a large list of thing she likes about the Smart board, primarily the interactive capabilities for the kids. One of the big things she mentions to me is the ability for children with motor skill disabilities to get involved with the Smart board.

Project #9b: Holocaust Instructional Timetoast

2010-10-16T20:38:00.003-05:00

Project #10: PLN

2010-10-10T21:42:00.003-05:00

I have set up Symbaloo as the center for my PLN, while using iGoogle to keep up with everything. One of the first things that I added to my PLN was the blog of our very own Dr. Roger's of the history department. Although his blog is typically a personal blog as opposed to an academic blog, I read it often, because he always manages to write about something that makes me think about things I have never thought about before, or think differently about something else.

Additionally I have since added TheFischBowl, from the previous blog assignments, just because I like the way this particular blogger writes, and what he writes about. And AtTheTeachersDesk, because it was recommended to me. I have also been reading Pondering Paige one of the blog assigned to me to read this semester, even more than the parts assigned. She is one of our very own at South Alabama as well, in the Education department. I've begun reading JT Spencer who will be assigned to me for next week! I read Trailsoptional an edublogger and teacher from Canada!

I tried to find a few things on facebook and twitter, but nothing really jumped out at me. I did follow all of my fellow classmates on twitter who had their accounts on their blogs, which was good. I'm just not used to tweeting so it's a little hard to get into the swing of it. I am also following a couple of tweeters who talk about teaching history, espcially American history, which is what I plan to teach. There were TAHVT, and US History Site. I'm also following The Department of Education, Educational apps (For iPohone and Droid!), and Room to Read! I have continued to keep up with the KidCast Podcast we were assigned to listen to during the week we listened to podcasts.

Blog Assignment 7

2010-10-10T21:37:00.002-05:00

First I would like to say that I am writing this post in tears right now. I know we aren't supposed to cry or pity, but that birthday cake got me hard. This has by far been the most inspirational video I have had to watch for this semester. Dr. Strange was right, very worth the hour and fifteen minutes. Mr. Pausch was quite an amazing person. He seemed like a very inspirational professor as well, I wish I could have taken one of his classes. I can only hope to have professors like him in the future, and be a teacher like him to my students.

I loved the idea about brick walls. I've said a similar thing before, "Sometimes people only put up brick walls to see who cares enough to break them down." His theory is: Brick walls are only there to see who is dedicated enough to break them down." And he is right, if the things we want are easy to achieve, then you haven't really even achieved anything by accomplishing them. Then there is "Don't Bail, the best of the gold is at the bottom of barrels of crap." Sometimes it's hard arduous work getting to your goals, but usually the thing that is the hardest to achieve is usually worth the "crap" you have to go through to get there.

"Get a feed back loop, and listen to it." I like what he said about how a person can say the same thing more than one way. You can say "I don't know" or "I don't know, but I cant wait to find out." He also said to cherish feedback, because when people are no longer helping you figure out how to do something better, they have just given up on you. Never take criticism harshly. Additionally, don't be the kind of person (read: teacher) who only says negative things. Word criticism's in such a way that you don't hurt the person.

My favorite lesson in his lecture was "Find the good in everyone... No one is all evil." He said to just keep waiting, they will show it eventually. Sometimes that can be very hard to believe, but it's true. Of course if you wait years and years they might leave and you never know if you were wrong...Still, it's the frame of mind that makes it truly important.

Project #9: Timetoast

2010-10-10T20:42:00.005-05:00

C4T#2 Summary

2010-10-05T10:43:00.003-05:00

Pondering Paige is a the Blog of a fellow University of South Alabama College of Education (Phew, that was a mouthful) professor. In her first blog post, she talks about wanting to create studio days at the school. She lists a number of things that art can help you with at school as well as in your regular every day life, such as the ability to perfect a project, accept mistakes, and truly focus on something. In my comment I introduced myself and encouraged her to create those studio days, by letting her know that I was definitely interested in attending!

In her second blog post she talked about the "See the Bigger Picture" exhibit going on at the Exploreum right here in Mobile. It was a competition by the youth in our country to come up with a series of photos representing biodiversity. I commented on how interested I was to see that exhibit and how much fun it must have been for her and her son to see it!

C4K #1+2

2010-10-03T19:41:00.002-05:00

I was assigned to comment on Andrew R's blog posts in Mrs. C's classroom blog. Her assignment's were for the students to create a blog post telling about themselves as well as creating a manifesto of what they were going to do.

For one of his posts he describes his manifesto. In it he promises to be more focused and better behaved. I let him know that this was a good way to start life, with the dedication to focus and do what he had to do. He also gave a vague about me section, and I let him know who I was and that I would be commenting on his blog posts for the next two weeks.

Blog Assignment 6

2010-09-30T14:04:00.006-05:00

The Networked Student

"Why does the networked student even need a teacher?" this video asks. It goes on to answer the question by telling us that a teacher of a networked student would be needed to help the student to learn first how to become networked, and then how to decide which items from the internet are valid and which ones are not.

This video is about the many ways classrooms and students can benefit from the use of personal learning networks and environments, like the ones we are developing in this class. The author of this video talks about the use of sites like Digg and Delicious in advancing out PLN's and how we can use them to show other people our discoveries.

One of the things I disagree with about this video is that it says that we will no longer need teachers to lecture. I can only assume that the author of this video means ever, and I have to disagree. There are a number of problems with changing to this system, but the author addresses these concerns on her blog. This is the only one that I am concerned about, I feel that good quality lectures shouldn't really be replaced.

Further, I have to say that I am a little concerned about the way I am constantly reading that "if teachers are brave" or "If teachers are willing to take risks" they will be willing to adopt these ideals, it feels a little like people are suggesting that if I don't follow their way of thinking that I am not brave nor willing to take risks for my students.

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment (or PLN)

This is very well put together video. The student who created this video has a very clear and engaging speaking voice, which I hadn't expected from a 7th grader. I really really liked the program she was using, Symbaloo. I like it a lot better than Delicious or Digg. It will be really helpful for my own PLN. One thing I noticed about her PLE that is a lot different than my PLN, is that her's consists mostly of useful websites, whereas mine is more about following the blogs and twitters of edubloggers I have encountered through the blog posts I have been required to do and the teachers I have been commenting on. I really should go out and look for websites to add to my PLN.

The Machine is (Changing) Us: YouTube and the Politics of Authenticity

This speaker knows how to keep his audience engaged! I loved all the videos that really pointed out all the things he was talking about. I also really enjoyed his history of whatever, and Meh. It was highly amusing. I never did understand the internet's obsession with vlogging, I would never really be able to put myself out there the way that so many people do on youtube. I think that they way he notes our young people are today is very worth considering for all teachers. We are going to need to know how to deal with students who think in very different ways than we do. South's Psychology department has been doing research on narcissism for a very long time, and their studies all say the same: Our young people are becoming more and more self-centered. As teachers we will need to learn how to both teach to this as well as combat the misery that comes with it.

Project Podcast

2010-09-28T16:09:00.003-05:00

A podcast on the Kaiser Family Foundation's Study: Generation M2 Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year Olds

Blog Assignment 5

2010-09-26T19:57:00.004-05:00

Eagle Nest Radio & Class Blog

The podcast's here on Eagle Nest were especially good. They definitely gave me some good ideas, and at least one thing to avoid. The number one thing I liked about this podcast is the music in the background, but the one thing I hated about this podcast was the music in the background. It was good to have something to hear to associate what was being said in the podcast with, but at the same time the music was a little too loud, and that made it difficult to hear the kids!

The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

This was a video podcast (A vodcast?) done by a man named Joe Dale. It was a little meta because his purpose in this podcast was to help discuss what benefits can be had from using podcasts in the classroom. I really liked his mod of delivery for his podcast - the video. He was able to keep things very fresh and interesting by moving around and changing things up.

Judy Scharf Podcast Collection

I listened to the podcast she had which was titled simply "Exemplary Podcast #1" and I have to agree with her it is quite exemplary. The best part about it is the humor that goes along with it. This made things very interesting and kept me quite engaged.

Blog Assignment 4

2010-09-18T20:05:00.008-05:00

Don’t teach your kids this stuff. Please?

Dr. McLeod is an Edublogger and Associate Professor at the Iowa State University, he is also co-creator of the Did You know video we watched earlier this semester. I really like what he has to say in his blog post/poem here. Although I have to say I dislike his general ee cummings style, I do like his message. "Go ahead, teach your kids to fear technology. But I wont, and I can't wait to see how much farther mine get."

Obviously technology, despite some of it's disadvantages, is a far better tool to use than to disregard. Although we should be vigilant about internet safety, we should not let it get in the way of our, or our children's, education.

The iSchool Initiative.

This innovative high school student argues that the iTouch should be used to replace the textbook/notebook/pen/pencil/chalk/calculator/etc/etc/etc system of schools today. Instead schools should just spend $150 per student to furnish each with an iTouch locked to school functions, and all tests, homework, etc can be given out and turned in via the iTouch. In addition each iTouch can be loaded with dozens or more useful apps.

This is a great idea and something I have thought might be coming for ages. There are a couple of issues, but only small ones. The start up costs would mean that schools would lose a lot of money before they saved any, and also the issue that some schools are required to use Microsoft products. However I assume the same would apply for a Driod, etc. So that's not a big issue. Over all I love the idea of this, it would really be helpful!

Lost Generation
Interestingly if you Google "Lost Generation" the first thing you will get is a Wikipedia article on the phrase "Lost Generation" as used by Ernest Hemingway in one of his novels to describe the generation of artists that came of age during World War I. Just an interesting thing to think about juxtaposed with this video, which was very good by the way. And an interesting view on the world today. It's good to see that some people aren't giving up on our youth, as so many have.

Virtual Choir!

Here is a link to the blog post by Eric Whitacre explaining how the virtual choir came to be and how it was done. While the music is itself striking, I don't think it's the only thing striking about it. What is striking is that these people composed the music all at different times and different places and then came together to make something beautiful.

Additional Assignment #1: Searches

2010-09-15T21:43:00.005-05:00

I did not know about Google Squared or Wolfram Alpha before this assignment, and it was very interesting to learn about them. I really liked Wolfram Alpha, because it gives you a really concise set of data that can be helpful for simple searches. Google Squared is a little less neat but just as interesting, one of the searches I did was for Alabama Congressmen, and it came back with a simple list of Congressmen from Alabama they way I asked for it. This is so helpful if you don't want to wade through . the websites regular Google gives for the same search. As far as statistics go, I have always been one to think about the implication of statistics, as well as how they could be skewed. I'm fairly good at being able to spot when people are using statistics to make things look in their favor. Though I'm sure more gets by me than I know.

Food For Thought: I've always thought the iPad was an extremely interesting gadget. I've always wanted one, they are so futuristic, it really feels like we are finally there. But I really wonder if a stable boy from Columbia couldn't use a point and click computer just as easily.

Project #5: Presentation.

2010-09-12T11:47:00.002-05:00

Project #3: C4T #1

2010-09-07T11:28:00.003-05:00

Trails Optional Is a blog by a 5th Grade teacher in Canada. Her blog post here, which is the first one I commented on, is a review of the game Endless Ocean and a description of how she uses it in her class room to teach her students about various oceans and seas around the world. I introduced myself and explained who I was and why I was commenting on her blog. Then I went on to tell her how wonderful it was of her to use such an interesting tool in her classroom, and how many various ways the game could be used in the classroom.

In her second blog post I commented on she talks about using twitter in the classroom. She tells us that her class collaborated with other classes all around the world to come up with an educational animoto. In my comment I first reminded her of who I was and that I was assigned to read her blog for EDM 310, then went on to tell her that the exciting things she was doing in her classroom were exactly the kinds of things we were learning about here in ours. Then I asked her if she would be interested in allowing me to follow her twitter as part of my Personal Learning Network.

Blog Assignment 3

2010-09-07T10:59:00.005-05:00

A Vision of Students Today.
I don't want to say that my college experience has been bad, exactly. I have actually enjoyed it so far. I love to learn, and I love the freedom to do so that college gives me. This video paints a very dark, bleak image of what college is. However, I can't say that it's wrong exactly. I have had more than one class with a over all class size of well over a hundred. I have also had classes of less than ten. One thing that really stood out to me is the statement "18% of my teachers know my name." Even teachers who have small classes rarely learn my name. I seriously doubt that even that many of my past professors have known my name.

There are a number of things I would add to the video if I were interested in making it more accurately represent my college experience. I have had mostly good experiences so far, so I would have to change the video to represent my good experiences while keeping to the over all theme of the video. I would add a part at the beginning before the current form of the video begins, that highlights the good aspects of the college experience. The video would then say something about how there are also bad things, and follow into the current form of the video.

It's not about the technology.
This blog was about technological literacy, and the idea that even with technological literacy one must be a good teacher in order to be effective. I couldn't agree more. "If a student has not learned, not matter how much effort has been exerted, no teaching has been done." I wish more teachers understood this. I think too many modern teachers believe that if they present the required information to their students, they have accomplished their task of teaching. Not only is this not true, it can be detrimental to the student's and their learning.

It matters not if a person knows the difference between TCP and IP, if they can't become effective teachers without the technology, adding the technology is not going to improve the student's learning. Additionally, if the teacher is going to be effective at utilizing the technology in his or her classroom, he or she must also be a lifetime learning, keeping constantly updated on the new and evolving equipment.

Is it okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher?
I noticed that the author of this blog is also the creator of the "Did You Know?" series of videos we explored in last weeks blog posts. His post here relates to his videos, in that the videos presented the information, as facts, simple truths that aren't really all that simple. The blog takes it further to describe (albeit angrily) exactly what these facts mean for teachers today.

He discusses his anger at people who proudly claim to be poor at math, as well as technologically illiterate. He compares it to people claiming to be proud of being unable to read. He also discusses the terms "digital native" and "digital immigrant." It is very ironic that we were required to read this blog this week, because I just had a discussion about all of these things with my own mother last night. She called me a digital native and herself a digital immigrant and talked as though she were in some ways moderately proud to be less than technologically literate. I say this full welling knowing she will most likely be reading what I am saying here. I don't know if it's okay for her to be technologically illiterate, but I know that as a future teacher, it is not okay for me to be technologically illiterate.

Social Media Countdown.
I've seen similar countdowns related to death, or birth, or various other things. Never have I seen it for social media, and it's quite astounding. It gives one the feeling of being lost in a sea of information. For my career, it means I will have to constantly be updating my technology and learning with the times.

Project #2 Wordle

2010-08-31T11:10:00.002-05:00

Blog Assignment 2

2010-08-31T10:57:00.006-05:00

Did You Know?
I am astounded after watching “Did You Know?” I knew that my generation had made leaps and bounds above the generations before mine, but not to the point explained in this presentation. Although I am not actually all the shocked by the number of English speaking Chinese, or honors students in India, I am truly amazed at the way the world has changed just since I've been alive. No, just since I've been a teenager. I was thirteen years old when the first commercial text message was sent out. Now I cant go a day without texting. I can hardly go between classes without sending out a quick one. And I certainly sneak a few in at work when I can. (Shhh).

By 2049 they expect that a standard computer will be able to out perform the entire human race computationally. I don't know whether to be daunted or excited by the prospect. A little of both I imagine. Of course, according to a recent article in our very own Vanguard, in 1982 they firmly believed we would have colonies on the moon. So, maybe life 40 years from now wont be all that advanced. Somehow I doubt it though. Look how far we've come in just the last decade...

Mr. Winkle Wakes
This movie was of particular interest to me, as I am working on a writing project of my own, where the main character finds herself in the opposite situation of Mr. Winkle. She finds herself in 1928, confronted by a situation where she has to learn to live without the technology she has become so accustomed to using.

I can very well imagine Mr. Winkle's confusion at seeing the business and hospital using the – to him – strange new machines and advanced, almost alien, technology. Although I tend to think that the example of the school is, at least in some ways, hyperbole. I see the point being made and agree with it heartily. I feel that schools are a little more advanced that they were one hundred years ago. There are projectors and slide shows and computers in many class rooms. However, when compared to hospitals and businesses, or even universities, the technology used in schools across the country is terribly lacking, and the spirit of education has grown only worse.

Ken Robinson
My first thought when watching this video, was more or less "Wow, what a funny guy." and then I really listened to what he had to say. It brought back a memory of a discussion I had in some class in high school. We had discussed the idea that if you go into a kindergarten class in any school in America and ask them what they want to be when they grow up, you will get dozens of actors/actresses and just as many artists in each class. If you go into the upper level classes in high school, you see lawyers, and air traffic controllers, and people who want to go career military, etc. None of that is wrong per se, but you do see squashed creativity.

Then he began talking about a culture which refuses to allow its citizens mistakes. I couldn't agree more. We don't want to learn new skills, because we are too afraid of making the mistakes required to really learn something. We are punished for "bad" performance, and so we learn not to perform. That's not just an American thing, but a world epidemic. The one thing I really took from this is to question how I, as a teacher, can change that in my own class room, and help other teachers to take actions that can change that as well.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts.
Well the first thing I have to point out about this video is the ironic fact that it made me look up "terraforming." Which was one of the goals of the teacher in the video. After I looked it up though, I realized I already knew what it meant, after watching the television series Firefly.

More importantly though, I am supposed to be talking about my reaction to the video itself. And here is what I thought: I love what this teacher is doing, I think teaching technology is extremely important. I am glad that classes like that and classes like the one I am currently in exist for students. I wonder though, how we as future English/History/Math/Science or Elementary and Special Education teachers can or should use the technology. It is well and good that a teacher who teaches a technology class to use simulated reality to teach it, but I am hoping we will learn tools and technologies that work in our own standard (future) classrooms.

Blog Assignment 1

2010-08-25T10:34:00.004-05:00

About Lynn Ellis

My name is Lynn Ellis and I was born in Cumberland, MD; however my family moved to Mobile shortly after I was born, so I do consider this my home. I lived briefly in Houston, TX while my mom went to college there. I do miss all of the things that I could do there that Mobile just doesn't have, but I wont miss the rich history of Mobile. I am twenty-one and enjoy my freedom. I'm just glad to be here.

I have a love affair with History, right now I am a Docent at the Museum of Mobile. I give tours to young school groups and I enjoy it very much. I am also a member of the Alabama National Guard and love it also. In both places I have to opportunity to teach people about some pretty interesting things, so doubly good for me. I am an Avid reader of all genres, and I also frequently enjoy writing and intend to publish a novel when I get done with school.