Comment4Kids Week 14

This week I had to read Kayla's blog. She made a story book online using Storybird. Her story was called "Her & Daddy," but it wasn't really about a girl and her daddy. It was random and talked about the girl going to town and eating apples and having a pet monkey.
My comment:

I have never used Storybird. Did you enjoy using it? Is it easy? I am a student at the University of South Alabama taking a class called EDM310 so that I can one day be a teacher. Maybe I can use Storybird in my classroom.

Farewell, So Long

I had a great semester and a great time in EDM310. I learned many new tools from Dr. Strange and Ms. Averitt and from my classmates as well. I hope each of you have also enjoyed this semester! I am sure I will see many of you in other classes and maybe we can use some tools we learned in EDM 310! :) You all have my gmail email (via this blog & our Master List) if you would like to stay in touch or need to ask anything. I hope everyone has a great summer!

My Final Reflection of EDM310

This semester is coming to an end, and I am shocked that it has went by this fast. When I first entered EDM310 and saw all of the required projects and participation, I felt extremely overwhelmed! What is a podcast? I have to Skype? Picasa--is that something created by Picasso? I have to comment on blogs? Oh no, I have to create a blog?!? These are a few of the questions that ran through my head the first night of class while listening to Dr. Strange talk about the "intellectual journey" we were fixing to embark on together. I thought I was technology literate until I took this class. I am not brain-dead when it comes to computers, but I have found there are many programs and resources I had never heard of, much less used before. Throughout my semester in this course, I have come to love and frequently use:

Google Docs Google Spreadsheets Google Forms- My favorite part about Google tools is that you can email them to anyone, and they can either view it or edit it. It is reliable because Google can be viewed anywhere internet access is allowed. Therefore, you do not always have to have a USB with you.
Youtube- I have watched silly videos on Youtube with my friends and co-workers, but now I have realized the educational side of Youtube. People make videos every day, and you never know what you will find when you search Youtube.
Windows Movie Maker- I have seen this program on my computer since I got the computer; however, I have never used it until this class. I used it for a project with Brooke McQuillan and Lauren Germany to make a video on how students use technology in the classroom and at home. Since then, I have made a video of pictures of my niece and nephew, and I am planning on making another one of video clips!
iTunes- I have never been interested in iTunes because I like music, but I would rather just listen to my car radio. I was given an iPod for my birthday one year, and I never visited iTunes to download music. Now I know that I can listen to lectures from professors at numerous universities and find many instructional and educational videos.
iTunesU- South Alabama is coming a long way with iTunesU. Professors at South Alabama need to move with technology and not against it. I am sad to see that my department (math) is still lagging in the technology world; however, I am super excited to see that my other department (education) is going full speed ahead in this area!
Delicious- Delicious is a great tool because it bookmarks everything you want to use. The reason Delicious is better than just bookmarking something is because you can pull it up on any computer, just like Google tools! You can even send bookmarks to others, which makes it great for PLNs.
ALEX- This is one of the best resources I have found. This site allows you to view lesson plans and podcasts. It even suggests different web links and provides personal working space. I know I will be using this site constantly in the near future!


I had no idea Google has such a variety of different free programs for its users! I absolutely loved commenting on kids' blogs because you never knew what you would see. Children are super creative, and it is awesome that their teachers are giving them the chance to express their creativity by the use of technology.




When my class presented their substantive presentations, one guy presented a cartoon he created by using ToonDoo. I wish we would have known about this program sooner so that we could have prepared presentations from ToonDoo as well. This would be especially great for elementary education majors. Maybe next semester the classes can prepare a presentation using ToonDoo.


I honestly do not believe there are any projects or assignments I regret doing. I do not regret them because they all gave me a chance to see what I like and might try to incorporate as a teacher and what I might not want to use. After all my complaining about blogging, I have now realized I will probably create a class blog for my students to go to that will offer podcasts for them to listen to in case they do not understand a problem. I am thankful that I now know how to record podcasts and videos and edit them as well.

I cannot honestly say that anything really excited me. I am super thankful though that I have went through this "intellectual journey" and had the opportunity to explore many useful tools for my future classroom. I did get tickled when I finally figured out Google Earth because that program gave me fits at first!

Google Earth was the only program that I found challenging. I had a hard time figuring out which controls did what on the program and for some reason the instructional videos simply did not "click" in my mind. After a few hours of frustration and wanting to give up, I finally started to understand what to do and how to make the program work. I am thankful for it, too, because I have now decided to go to Orlando, FL in May on vacation!

The only time I was bored is when I attended class meetings. I did most of my work ahead of time, and I felt as if it was a waste of time to be there most days we were required to come. Most of my classmates were playing on Facebook, and I wondered if they were ahead, too. These were the only times I was bored in this class. The class itself is extremely intriguing and has prepared me in many ways to be a successfully technology literate teacher.

For future classes in this course, I would definitely suggest that they use ToonDoo. That program was super interesting, and I feel it could definitely interest little kids. The work load was not too much. The projects seem like a lot, but if people learn to manage their time and space them out, they will not have a problem in this course.

I do believe that I am now technology literate--thanks to this course! I have not realized how many technology tools are at our fingertips because I have not had many teachers implement technology tools in their classrooms. This is sad because these teachers will one day be faced with younger technology advanced educators taking their positions simply because they want to sit back and be stuck in their old ways. I do not have a problem with pencil and paper one bit, but we have to be able to captivate our audiences and make them want to learn. Most children nowadays rely on technology at home, so implementing technology in classrooms will only prove to be extremely useful for both educators and their students.

I plan to continue working on my PLN and continuously watching podcasts. I also want to watch children's blogs to see what they are doing in their classrooms so that I will be prepared when they get to my classroom. I will also use ALEX to my advantage for lesson plans and such.

Interview

For one project, I had to interview a student and ask what they believe constitutes a technology literate teacher. I interviewed Chad, a junior at the University of South Alabama, who is majoring in Information Technology (IT). Chad has been attending USA for one and a half years now. In my interview, I asked him what he believes a technology literate teacher is and if he believes teachers will be more technology literate as future generations become teachers. Please watch, and listen to his views about technology literate teachers. Thank you!

Google Earth Presentation

I had to create a Google Earth presentation for EDM310 as well. This turned out to be a great experience! I decided to go through the United States' top tourist sites. I have always wanted to take a trip to Disney or Sea World, and making this presentation made me want to visit these places more than ever! I have actually now planned a trip to visit Busch Gardens, Sea World, and Aquatica during May 2010. I am extremely excited about this trip, and I owe part of that excitement to Google Earth. Please enjoy and tell me what you think!

Substantiative Presentation

Brooke McQuillan, Lauren Germany, and I interviewed three students and asked them how they use technology in their classrooms and at home. The students were in middle school, high school, and college. They each use computers in their classrooms, but they vary with their use of technology at home. The college student, Mark, uses technology at home to work with clients. The high school student, Kelly, uses technology at home to communicate with friends and listen to music via her ipod. The middle school student, Benjamin, uses technology at home to play his xbox. Please watch it, and let me know what you think!

Blog Assignment for April 18

Commenting for Children

Children thrive on compliments from anyone, especially from adults. My favorite part of this class was commenting on children's blogs. Children are super creative, and even though I will one day be a secondary education teacher, I still love looking at younger children's works. I have read stories on children's blogs, viewed their drawings, and read about historical events through their own words. One blog was a creative story by two fifth graders using adjectives. Their story was about a scary spider, and their usage of adjectives astonished me because they used adjectives well above their grade level. Another blog was on the French Revolution from a fourth grade child. I saw an illustration from a first grader of a lion, and she wrote a short sentence describing her picture. I love being around my five year old niece because she lights up any time I tell her good job or to give me a high-five. When we compliment a child's work, it is the exact same thing as giving them a high-five.

Podcast

Lauren Germany, Brooke McQuillan, and I recorded a podcast reviewing three inexpensive video cameras.Listen to it, and tell us what you think! We used audacity to record it on Lauren's computer. We googled sound clips of Napoleon Dynamite's voice from his movies. When we came to a part in our scripts that called for his input, we simply played the clips. We also used Three Days Grace's song "Just Like You" for our introduction and finale. Audacity is a nifty tool that is very user friendly and records sounds. Our entire class made podcasts; listen to them and comment!

Comment4Teachers Weeks 13 & 14

I have been assigned to Mr. Needleman's blog: Creating Lifelong Learners.




Week 13:
Mr. Needleman divided his class into groups to form a literature circle in which they are given various tasks when reading stories. My comment:

Mr. Needleman,

I am a junior at the University of South Alabama majoring in Secondary Education–mathematics. Please feel free to check out my blog at: greeneangelaedm310.blogspot.com.

In my elementary and secondary schools, my teachers divided us into literature circles. However, we were not given the same jobs/titles as your students. I like the titles you have created (The Predictor, Maker of Connections, Great Summarizer, Curious Clarifier, Word Wizard, and the Very Good Visualizer). Instead, my classmates and I were given the job of finding the problem, the solution, the climax, the rising action, etc. If we had been given interesting jobs like your students, I might have enjoyed literature class more!

Week 14:

Mr. Needleman gave tips for improving comprehension scores of students. I commented using Vocaroo software:

April 11th Assignment

Before EDM310, I had never used a blog. In fact, I honestly did not know exactly what a blog is. I am thankful that EDM310 has shown me the importance of blogging. Blogs can be an extremely helpful tool in classrooms. Blogs can help parents, teachers, and students communicate regularly and collaborate ideas to better the education of the students.

Mrs. Rose is an elementary math teacher. She uses her blog to give her students different links to help with their math skills. She says we should use technology because it is a natural way for them to learn. She posts math activities on her blog and pictures of events her classroom has participated in during the school year to keep her parents and students involved.



Enjoy learning English is a blog created specifically for ESL (English as a Second Language) students. This is wonderful for these students because it gives them different links that can help them want to learn English. One link on the blog leads to jokes; the author of this website says jokes are a natural way of learning that can be fun for these ESL students.





A Really Different Place is a blog for gifted children from grades K-7. This blog displays some of their work they complete in their gifted programs. One interesting area of the blog is the Doodle for Google projects. They had to creatively change the Google sign on Google's site. They displayed many unique designs, which you should check out at this site!




Blogs are going to continue playing an important part in the educational system, and we should be open to blogging. An infinite amount of blogs are available, and we should continue to look at different blogs for ideas in our classrooms!

April 4th Assignment

I have seen the "Your Baby Can Read" program many times on TV, and I have always told myself I will make sure I get this program for my children. I have a two and a half year old nephew, and I even thought about buying it for him. Children that can read at 9 months old is absolutely astonishing to me! It is important for parents to realize how incredible this program actually is. When I was in Kindergarten, I was not required to read. Instead, we played, napped, and wrote our letters. We wrote letters--not words; the words came in 1st grade when we started learning to read. If children began to read earlier, they might value literature more than most children do today.

Children who can read at such early ages absolutely amazes me, so you can imagine how inspirational Kaia's story was to me! Kaia's father sees the importance of involving your children at an early age. Although Kaia cannot read yet, her father is taking it one step forward by allowing her to blog with him. I have always thought I will be super protective of my children on the internet, but Kaia's father has given me a new outlook on the internet. My grandparents live about three hours away, and my children can keep in touch with them through Skype and blogging. These tools are going to be invaluable to me and my children one day. I am glad to see that Mr. C was also impressed by Kaia and allows his class to communicate with her. I hope to see the children of today blogging more and more often!

PLN- Post Number 2

I have continued working on my PLN (Personal Learning Network), and I plan to use this in the future to help me become a better educator. A PLN is great because it helps to converse with teachers all over the world, not just teachers who work at the same school. It also enables teachers to share the works of their students with other teachers so that they can collaborate and share ideas about the students' works. My PLN is still evolving, and I am sure it will never quit. I hope that it grows forever because this shows I am still actively involved in my career and concerned about the education of my students.

Facebook has been the main source for my PLN. I have joined teacher organization groups, groups for high school students, and groups for math students. Some websites, such as pbs.org, even allow parents to join so that teachers and parents can converse. This is wonderful because it keeps the parents involved in their children's educations. I am thankful for my PLN because it allows me to have tons of "pen pals" all over the world and be able to relate to other educators. Every educator's style is completely different, and a PLN allows us to collaborate and pull ideas together so that we can make our styles and beliefs better for our students. I am glad EDM310 made me start a PLN because it is something that has already proven to be useful for me!

GOOGLE PRESENTATION

I am always astounded to hear how many people have trouble performing operations on fractions. Even some math majors and engineers seem almost scared and intimidated by them--not that they cannot perform the operation. I have even heard that some elementary teachers do not like fractions, so they hurry along through the chapter, and the children never really see them again. This makes me sick! Those teachers need to do their job so that these children can perform these simple operations in middle and high school.

I am not saying I absolutely love fractions. Instead I am saying that they are out there, so we might as well make the best of them. I have composed a Google Presentation on Fractions. I explain what exactly a fraction is and how to perform different operations on fractions. I hope this helps people of all ages feel confident while working with fractions.

Math Questionnaire

Throughout the years, I have been told a few times that it is rare that I am good in math. People used to tell me not to let the boys get ahead of me and keep striving to be the best. While I am not the best, I thought it was odd to hear them say it was "rare" that a female was good in math. I have heard when public schooling was still fairly new that math was the "boy subject," whereas English was the "girl subject." In my EDF315 class this semester, I was shocked to see people still view girls as somewhat below the boys in mathematics. So, I decided to make my questionnaire about mathematics to see exactly what other people think about gender differences in mathematics and if times have actually changed or not. My results:

Everyone (25 people) who participated in the survey said they had at least fair skills in math. No one said they were horrible at mathematics during grades K-12.

84% of the people who took my survey had at least one parent good in math. Of this 84%, 62% said the parent that was good in math was the Dad rather than the mom.

Only 12% (3 people) said they felt that males were superior to females in mathematics. Everyone else agreed that neither gender is superior.

Of the 25 people surveyed, 56% said they took at least one extra math class in high school, and 36% of those surveyed said when they do well in math, they feel it is due to hard work rather than intelligence. 52% agreed that mathematics is like a different language.

I was definitely happy to see that the math stereotype (boys are better than girls in math) is fading away!

Timetoast Timeline

Comment4Kids Week 13

I read Dillon's post about his experiences at camp. He described them in the form of a poem and even shared video footage with us. My comment:

Dillon,

I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL. Was this footage from your trip at camp? If this is you, it looks like you had a blast! I love your poem and your usage of adjectives and adverbs. You seem to have a natural talent for writing, so I hope you continue to write! Thank you for sharing this video and poem.

Comment4Kids Week 12

Anahera drew a picture titled "The Sleepy Lion." She descirbed it to her teacher as, "The sleepy eyed lion with the fluffy orange mane was lying peacefully on the rocky outcrop."


I commented on Anahera's picture of a lion she drew. My comment:





Anahera,I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I love your picture and the adjectives you use to describe it. I have never thought of a lion's mane as being fluffy. Do you like lions? Are they your favorite animal? Nice job! Keep up the good work!

Comment4Kids Week 10

This week, I had the same child's blog as before, so I went back to her blog to see if she had posted anything new. The child, Gabby, still had not responded to everyone's question asking what her hypothesis for her science fair project was.