Blog Post #10

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture was an inspirational video about life. Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. In September 2006, Randy Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and in August 2007 his doctors told him that he had 3-6 months to live. On July 25, 2008, Pausch passed away due to the cancer.

During the video, Randy Pausch seemed so happy and was making jokes throughout his whole lecture. I would have never guessed that he was going to die within a few months because he had nothing but a smile on his face and just seemed to be the happiest person on earth. Randy first talked about his childhood dreams which were being in zero gravity, being an NFL player, being an author of a Encyclopedia article, meeting and being Captain Kurk, being on of those guys that win a big stuff animals at an amusement park, and becoming a Disney Imagineer. Another part of his lecture includes how he reached out to others to seek their dreams. He then taught a course at Carnegie Mellon University which would have 50 students separated into four groups and they would have two weeks to work  and complete a project. Their project was to build a virtual world and then present it when the two weeks were done. Once the groups were done, they were randomized again and created another project. As the course went on, more people came to watch the projects being displayed and it became widely talked about throughout the campus. Also, I really liked how he brought his wife into his lecture not because it was her birthday but to show everyone that she has been a big impact on his life and also I liked how the video was devoted to his kids. Overall, a great inspirational video that I will not forget.

I learned form Randy Pausch that the best way to teach kids is to let the kids learn without letting them know that they are learning. Teaching them lessons that do not allow them to know that they are learning make the students learn more. I think this is great way to teach students because it makes the teaching and learning fun.

Project #9

Project #12 Part A

Blog Post #9

The Race

Blog Post #8

Mr. Paul Anderson's has been teaching science at the high school level for the last nineteen years. He is currently teaching AP biology class in Bozeman, Montana. In 2011, Mr. Anderson received an award named the Montana Teacher of the Year award and was a top finalist for the National Teacher of the Year award. In his video, Blended Learning Cycle, he talks about his combination of Blended Learning and Learning Cycle. Blended Learning is a combination of online, mobile, and classroom learning. And the Learning Cycle is when students engage, explore, explain, expand, and evaluate on what they are learning. Mr. Anderson puts those together and comes up with the Blended Learning Cycle. He starts off his class with a good question which he calls the "hook" to grasp their attention. After the question he ask them to investigate or experiment on what they are learning. Then he has the students watch a video, and ask them to elaborate on what they are learning. After elaborating, he has the students review and make sure the students know what they just learned.  To end the class he gives them a timed summary quiz which if the student does not get a question right, then they go back and fix what they do not know.

What I learned from Mr. Paul Anderson is a successful way to teach my students. The main point I got out of his video was to make sure to ask a good question to have the students get engaged to what is being taught. Instead of being a basic teacher and just lecturing and reading the textbook, I can go above and beyond with my students in the way I teach with them by teaching off the Blended Learning Cycle.

Back to the Future-  Chris May

In Brian Cosby’s video Learning is messy he tells about his classroom that is full of multi racial and poverty stricken kids. In his classroom all of his students have their own blog as well as their own computer. In that sense, his class is a lot like EDM. In having their own blogs and computers he urges his students to think outside of the box. His students are privileged enough to be involved in project quite a bit. He tells about a project they had in which they sent up small hot air balloons into the air. After doing this, the students were challenged to answer why and how the balloon lifted and flew through the air. After finishing up their answers they were then directed to write a story about what if they were the balloon and how they would react. The students also have their own wiki and flickr account which they use in their class as well.

In my opinion Mr. Cosbys is one awesome teacher. Considering how young the students are is very impressive to me. When I was in 4th and 5th grade I was just happy to get to run around the gym I would have loved to have a teacher like this. I'm not quite sure how I can use PBL in a PE situation but I do plan to look into how to incorporate it because PBL is extremely useful!

Making Thinking Visible- Corey Waldon

In the video Making Thinking Visible by Mark Church,  he discuss how his students make their thinking visible. He explains an assignment where he records  his students  learning and follow their thought process. In the video he asks his students to come up with a title that summarized their thoughts on what they were reading. They put the titles on a long blank sheet of paper and presented it to the class. What Mr. Church was doing was getting his students thoughts down in writing and after a couple weeks of going more in depth in the reading he said he was going to do the same assignment to see if the students title would change. He did this to see how much there thinking had differed from the beginning of the lesson.

As teachers,  one thing we can learn from Mark Church is how to get in touch with our students thoughts and how to document those thoughts. By making thinking visible Mark gives his students a challenge to come up with a title where they collaborate with other students and address all their thoughts and decided which one explains the thoughts of the whole group. Teachers can learn how students work together, how they listen to one another and how students express their thoughts. I believe making thinking visible is a great idea and I support it 100 percent.

C4T #2

For C4T #2, I was assigned to comment on Mel Hamada's blog PE Tech Field Testing. Mrs. Hamada is a PE teacher at the International School of Tanganyika. On Mrs. Hamada's first post that I commented on was titled So long and thanks for the mornings... which is a farewell letter to her 8th grade homeroom students. She explains how she has watched them grow throughout the year and states how wonderful of a homeroom class they have been for her. She tells them that she was thankful for being able to seem them every morning for 15-20 mins. I simply commented and stated that hopefully one day I will have a group of students that I would love to see everyday just as she did. Based off this post, I can definitely tell that she was really attached to her students and that it was hard to see them leave. Also, I think if a parent read this they would be happy that their child was in her home room because she gave great feedback about them.



The next post that I commented on Mel's blog was Who appraises or offers you Feedback?. This post was about teachers receiving feedback from students. She states that she has been working on different kinds of feedback for the past few years. Also, she mentions that when receiving feedback, that teachers should read the data carefully  because all students have different learning skills. Here is her Feedback Survey from the students she taught this past year. I agreed with her and commented by stating that I think students should offer feedback of their teachers teaching. By receiving feedback form students allows the teachers to establish their strengths and weaknesses when teaching in the classroom. If the teachers get bad feedback, then they can see were they are not doing as well in the classroom and hopefully fix it to get better in the future.

Blog Post #7

Assistive technology is technology used for students with certain disabilities in the classroom. There are a lot of different assistive technology tools that are available for teachers. For example, if a student that has limited mobility in using their hands may use a keyboard with larger keys on it. In the video, The Mountbatten, it talks abut a device called the Mountbatten Braille Writer which gives the student audio and tactile feedback for a student who is blind. After researching about assistive technology tools, I found out that teachers can use applications on iPads as a tool in the classroom for the students. One tool that I found is called Proloquo2Go which is an application on the iPad that provides a voice for students who do not have a voice or have trouble speaking. According to Apple, this application is rated a four in a half star out of five, so it would be a great investment and teachers would have great results.

As a PE teacher, all the students will be included in the activities we do, no matter what type of disability they have. I can adjust the activity of the day for those students that are physical disabled. For example, if a student is in a wheelchair, I can instruct an activity that involves all the students being on scooters or anything that has at least two wheels on it. By doing this, it makes sure that everyone is included and no one is left out. Plus its a great chance for everyone to have FUN!!!

Corey Waldon

Assistive  Technology

As a teacher teaching in the 21st century there are numerous assistive technologies that could be used in a classroom. First off, what is assistive technology? It is any kind of technology that can be used to enhance the functional independence of a person with a disability. For example on a computer there is speech-generating technology in which computer software translates what a person types on a keyboard. Some computer software also has auto-correct where if a person type in a few letter it recognize the entire word. Some technology used for visual aid; are screen magnification software which enlarges the portion of the text that is highlighted with the mouse. One Physical assistive technology I thought should be very useful was the use of audiobooks. An audiobook can be used for students who do not have the ability to physically handle books.

After watching the video Teaching mom what her Blind/deaf child is learning on the IPad, I saw how helpful the assistive tools added to the ipad can help a blind or deaf child. In the video you see how a mother takes a tour of an ipad by using the assistive techniques already available. The mother learns how her child is learning and how if you use an ipad properly it can still benefit students with disabilities. The video basically explains how the assistive technology in an ipad can be used to help students with typing. What I thought was cool and creative was how the ipad did a lot of talking, letting the mother know what she was doing and what letters she was on while typing.

Assistive technologies can be used to enhance students learning with disabilities. Teachers can use many different technologies already available. There are technologies for students with visual, speaking, hearing and physical disabilities. As a teacher it is our job to provide a safe and enriched learning environment for all students.

Chris May

While the video iPad usage for the blind I learned about software available on an iPad that can be very beneficial to the blind. Basically this software has a response to every time the screen is touched. The program verbally responds to each touch. The programs responds to the user and explains to them what they are doing and what they need to do open, close, and doing other things with apps. I found this pretty interesting! I never knew that any type of software like this existed. This software makes for blind people to be able to listen to books as well as use other apps that are available on the iPad. But, I see a potential problem with this program. In the video the voice that responds responds extremely fast and is somewhat hard to understand. I feel that the users of this program could become frustrated with this program because it repeats itself so many times and speaks fast and hard to understand.

I watched a video called Meet sam. This video is about a boy who suffers from cerebral palsy and uses assistive technology to help him go to school and blog. I thought this video was pretty cool because Sam is a blogger and that is what our EDM class consists of. Sam uses his iPad, computer, and his voice recorder to help him out throughout the day. He uses all of these to help him take his notes during school. Before Sam gained these technologies he had an aid to help him with these things. Now that Sam has assistive technologies he can do these things on his own without the help of someone else. Sam uses the app Audionote. This app helps him record the teachers lectures as well as take his own notes. Sam also uses the kindle app to read his class books and other books. Sam would not be able to do any of these things without the assistive technology on his iPad.

Project #9 - PNL

These are the tools that I use for my Personal Learning Network. I am actually thinking about setting it as my homepage because it has all the links to the websites that I use. I used Symbaloo for my PLN because it is neat and organized.

Project #8

Blog Post #6

"What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?"

Every teacher is different and every teacher has different teaching styles; therefore, teachers have different ways to ask questions. The video Asking better questions in the classroom by Joanne Chesley is a great video that explains the difference between open and closed type of questions. Open questions are questions that can be answered and elaborated on while closed questions are questions that a student can answer with either "yes" or "no". I think that teachers should ask questions that are related to the subject. Teachers should know how to ask the question properly instead of throwing extra words in the question that might cause to confuse the student. However, I do agree with Maryellen Weimer and her post Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom about playing with the question by leaving the question unanswered and let the students build up information and discuss different answers. I think this is a great idea because it always keeps them on their toes and gives the students something to think about in class.

Another thing that I think we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher is to know the limits of our students that we are teaching. We should not give our students a question that Albert Einstein could not answer, but instead know what they can and can not answer. Also another idea to be effective when asking questions is to start off with easy questions to let the students get their confidence up, and then gradually have the questions get harder as class goes on.

I am the student that pays attention to the topic of discussion in class but never answered during class or raised my hand in class to answer any questions that were asked. I usually keep my thoughts to myself, and there were a lot of times when I am right, but then there are times when I am completely wrong. I never want to chance it because I always feel like I will embarrass myself in front of the whole class. I plan to improve on this as I take this class throughout the summer.

Blog Post #5

The Langwitches - Flat Stanley Podcast is about a first grade class that read the book Flat Stanley by Jim Brown and made a podcast about it. Each student had a role in the podcast and was able to brainstorm with their teacher about the story-line which they were going to use. Each student also worked with their parents and thought of a city or place which they would like to travel to. I think it is amazing what these first graders did in their podcast. I know when I was in first grade, I did not even know what a podcast was. Also, I loved the imagination these kids had because it just simply made me smile because I could tell they were very happy in the podcast.

Langwitches - Podcasting with First Grade is about another first grade class that did a podcast about a book that they were currently reading. The book was called "Vacation under the Volcano" by Mary Pope Osborne. After reading chapter at a time, the class would discuss and summarize the what happened in the book by asking and answering their own questions. In the podcast, the students would pretend to be interviewing the two main characters of the book who were Jack and Annie. The boys were Jack and the girls were Annie in the interview and each student had a segment of the podcast. Each of the students learned many skills that included listening, speaking, storytelling, media, technology, and many more. All of the students were eager to listen to their voice over the podcast and they very happy with their success.

The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom by Joe Dale is a clip that describes the benefits of podcasting in the classroom. He explains that students that being taught that were born after the year 1980 are called Millenial's. He also explains that podcasting allows for differentiation in the classroom. Mr. Dale also tells how parents enjoy podcasting because they can see and understand what the students are learning in the classroom. I think that this is extremely beneficial because I know when I was younger my parents always asked what I was learning in school and by watching the podcasts the parents know whats going on.

Project #7

Project #3 Presentation

Blog Post #4

Coach's Eye

A tool that I think could be very useful for when I become a physical education teacher is an app called Coach's Eye. Coach's Eye app was first introduced to me when I was reading from John Hahnstandt blog The Flipped Coach. After doing research on the app, I found this video on YouTube that explains what the app does and it is called Coach's Eye: Change the Game.  The Coach's Eye is an application that allows a student, or athlete, to record themselves while participating in an activity. After performing the activity they will then be able to break down the video in slow motion once they have finished. For example, if a student wanted to know how to throw a football more accurately they would record themselves with the Coach's Eye app, and then be able realize their mistakes and correct them. Lets say the elbow was to far out, the Coach's Eye app would allow the athlete to see that and then fix that on their next rep when throwing the ball. Here is an example how the app works:

Chris May

The tool that I decided on is a Wii Fit program. Because I am planning on becoming a PE teacher I could use this program constantly. The Wii Fit program easily incorporates technology and a fun time into a PE class. Many students would prefer to sit around and play video games rather than move around and learn about sports and other things. If these students prefer video games over actually moving and playing games then they get the best of both worlds by playing a video game while being somewhat active. Another beneficial aspect of using a wii fit program would be assisting disabled children. If a child is unable to run. jump, or swing a bat they will now have a way of being active while also associating with other students so they do not feel left out of any activities. In this video it explains how the Wii Fit system helps children with dyspraxia learn to better stabilize themselves and not become as clumsy. Dyspraxia is disease that causes people to be much more clumsy than the average person and also affects their motor skills. Implementing a Wii Fit program into a high school level PE may be a bit pricey but the benefits outweigh the costs. The Wii Fit would not only elevate these students level of fitness but help their morale by making them feel much more normal and accepted. Also, what the students learn in the Wii Fit program could benefit them for the rest of their lives by learning how to exercise properly through the program.

Corey Waldon's Blog

Open School ePortfolio for Authentic Assessment

An ePortfolio is a collection of student work that is used to document effort, progress, and achievement over time. By using this student become more involved with their learning, goal setting and decision making. ePortfolio is a great tool for authentic assessment because it allows teachers and students to work beyond just multiple choice test.

Open school ePortfolio is a free tool designed to help students and teachers manage their portfolio process.  Teachers can use this tool to create projects and divide students in groups to complete them. There is also a way parents can login and get more involved with their child’s education. There is also an option where teachers can create a grading rubric. The rubric is readily available to students to give them guidelines to follow to achieve project goals. Students can complete projects and assignments by using text, images, and links. There is a goal setting option too, where students set their own personal goal and can follow their progress towards those goals. Open school ePortfolio has an easy grading process where submitted projects can be graded quickly by using the grading rubric. The tool also has an app where students can gain access from an ipad.

I will use ePortfolio to engage my students in project based learning. This tool gives me the ability to place my students in groups that would allow them to do cooperative learning. My physical education class will be based on integrating technology with physical education. I will post assignment s inside Open School ePortfolio and my students will have to read instructions that would guide them through all their projects. This tool would benefit my classroom because it would allow my students to do work outside of the regular classroom setting. If my students need to get in touch with me they could email me or leave comments. ePortfolio gives me daily contact with my students and I will always try my best to be available for them. I will give assignments that focus on health issues and why physical education is important. The group assignment will involve students watching YouTube videos and research on statics dealing with physical fitness and benefits of great health.

C4T #1

For my C4T assignment, I was assigned to Jason Hahnstadt who has a blog that is titled The Flipped Coach. Jason Hahnstadt is currently an assistant varsity football coach and assistant track coach at New Trier High School in Illinois. He also teaches Physical Education at Kelinworth School District. His blog is about taking the flipped classroom model into athletics and physical education.

In my comments I explained who I am and why I was commenting on his blog. His latest two posts were titled Flipping in Physical Education 2.0: It's all about the videos! and What is Flipped Coaching?. These two posts were similar because they both involved using technology in coaching and teaching physical education. In the post he basically explains the concept of a flipped classroom which is to teach or coach using technology by recording videos and having the students or athletes learn from the videos. In my comments I also mentioned how I am going to be a physical education teacher and that I will use his version of the "Flipped Classroom" when I start to teach and coach. 

Blog Post #3

Peer Editing

After watching this videos, I learned a lot about peer editing. Peer editing is when someone, who is the same age as you, tries to help the writer improve his paper by staying positive, being specific, and complete all three steps of peer editing. According to the videos and slide show, the three steps to peer editing are compliments, suggestions, and corrections. My favorite video was Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes because of the little kids and their funny acting skills. In all honesty, these students are right because every person is different when they peer review. The video What is Peer Editing? and the slideshow Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial were both really similar and stated the same facts. They both stated that in peer editing one should always remember to stay positive, be specific, and complete all three steep of peer editing. One thing I liked about the slideshow was that it gave examples of a paper that need some peer editing.

I think I have done a good job, so far, in my comments that I have left for the members in my group. There is always room for improvement but I stay positive and tell them what I really thought was interesting about their posts. I believe that my weakness in peer editing is being specific. Whenever I am peer editing I always try to be specific, but sometimes I get mixed up with my words and don't know how to word them correctly. Obviously I will have more chances to improve my peer editing skills, so I hope to do better in the future.

Test Blog Post

This is a test blog post.

Blog Post #2

Mr. Dancealot

Mr. Dancealot is a professor that teaches a dance class with out showing them how to dance. Instead he makes them take notes in a desk rather than them actually dancing. By the time they are suppose to dance, they do not know how to because they were not taught hands-on. If Mr. Dancealot would have taught them the right way by showing them hands-on in the classroom, they would have been more successful. Professors that teach this way will always have a bad reputation for teaching because they do not teach the actually skills but instead just give the information.

Harness Your Students Digital Smarts

Chris May’s Part

The video "Harness Your Students Digital Smarts" focuses on Vicki Davis's way of teaching. Mrs. Davis teaches in a classroom that is full of technology use. In the video Mrs. Davis is teaching her students about a new program. While talking about this program, Mrs. Davis brings up a very interesting point, that teachers do not need to know everything about a subject to teach it. She goes on to say that she is learning new things about the program just like her students are. She even says that her students have taught her things about this new program. I really enjoy her way of teaching, mainly because it is all interactive and there is no type of lecture in the classroom. It is all physically learning skills through technology instead of listening to a teacher lecture all day.

The Networked Student

Kai Lopez’s Part

The Networked Student is about a student in high school who has a teacher who never lectures and believes in connectivism. Connectivism is based off the belief of learning from social networking. He uses social networking to learn and share opinions by using Google Scholar and his schools library database. After gathering his information, he then creates his own blog so he can post about what he has learned. Then his classmates and others on social media can leave their comment and opinions on his blog post.

Now the question, "Why does the networked student need a teacher?" The teacher basically ties up all the strings for the student and is there for him if he has any questions. The teacher can show him how to be organized and creative with social networking. The teacher hopes that the student will continue using social networking and use it to help him with his work in the future.

By posting this video, Wendy Drexler, is trying to help students, parents, and other teachers understand networked learning in the 21st century. Drexler is showing how networking can be successful in a student or teachers work. Technology has been evolved to where it makes networked learning acceptable and easier to learn.   

Teaching in the 21st Century

Corey Waldon’s Part

“Teaching in the 21st century” by Kevin Roberts. His big question is what does it mean to teach in the 21st century? For me, to teach in the 21st century you must be able to talk and relate to your students in a way in which they can understand. The big word I saw in the video was engaged and I think to teach in the 21st century you must be able to engage with the students to maximize their learning. In order for students to learn in this time period teachers have to provide the basic fundamentals of learning and ways to learn. Robert sees teaching changes from books, pencil, and paper to social networks, blogs, and online web browsing. What I think Robert sees is technology and the advancement of education by using it. I feel that Roberts is right that teaching is not the same and that if we continue to teach facts, dates, and theories then what are we really teaching.

If Robert is correct this will affect me as a future educator because I will have to learn how to adapt to this new change. Future teachers themselves have to pick up the new technology and use it to teach children more about life and how to survive instead of just basic learning. Teachers must be open-minded and willing to try new things to accomplish the main goal, which is to educate their students. To me teachers are role model for kids and we must get them to express their thought and feelings openly while respecting them and learning from them. So instead of giving notes daily and forcing uninteresting lists of dates and facts into student’s minds, as a teacher we must give assignments that allow them to apply their own knowledge of a subject to expand their thinking. As a teacher we must also teach the relevance of the material and how it will benefit the student long term, and it goes beyond the walls of their classrooms.