Blog Post #16

I  am currently an equipment manager for the University of South Alabama's football team. The reason I am doing this is to put it on my resume that I have been part of Division I football program and also to build up my connections. I plan to be a Physical Education teacher and a head coach in football or basketball, and I think what I am doing right now will help me get further on in coaching.

The PE clases that I will be teaching will consist of Secondary Education classes. I plan on using project based learning in my classroom. Project based learning will help my students learn more by using their skills of creativity, and they will be able to work with peers to come up with bigger and better ideas.

Before taking EDM310, I never realized that technology can be used in Physical Education. After reading and commenting on other PE teachers blogs, I have found many ways to use technology in a Physical Education classroom. Using iPads, apps, blogs, videos, and podcast can all be used in my classroom because I have watched videos and read blogs on how they can be used successfully.

I plan on my classroom to be a place where the students can come in and feel welcomed. Instead of it being just a plain old regular classroom, I want mine to stick out to my students by having it filled with pictures about myself and about the school that I am teaching at. I want classroom to be the one that students look forward to coming in and having class.

Reading back on my first blog post assignment makes me laugh because of how I thought then compared to what I think now about me teaching. I stated that the tools I would use in PE would be courts, fields, and the classroom. Of course that is still true, but now (since taking EDM310) I have so many other resources or tools that I know I can use in my classroom. I can defiantly expand on that and include a SmartBoard, iPads, and many other tools or apps that I can use as a teacher. Looking back, I think it is amazing how much knowledge I have gained from taking this class.

Students will have the biggest role in my classroom. They will be the ones to do the activities and assignments that I assign to them, and how far they go with it is up to them. But I hope to drive them to be creative and learn to work together.

Blog Post #15

In the interview, Anthony shared his thoughts about iCurio and Discovery Ed. He explained how iCurio works by being a safe search engine for the students and it even follows ACCRS. He also explains that iCurio allows for students to organize themselves online by creating folders and even has storage for students who find content that is important. One of the coolest tool that iCurio has is its "read aloud" feature which could be very helpful for a teacher who has a student who is blind. Anthony also explained his thoughts on Discovery Ed. He said that Discovery Ed supports the text a person is using into a video. It turns the text into life. Me personally, I would like Discovery Ed, because I am a visual learner and I would rather watch a video than read.

In the video with Anthony Capps, UseTech Don'tTeachIt, I was amazed about by the fact that he said not to teach technology because I was always taught how to use technology. But I see his point because he lets his students explore and ask questions to learn more about technology. Also, I think that it is amazing how his third grade students know how to use iMovie and he doesn't have to spend time teaching it. I didn't learn how to use iMovie until high school. "Do it yourself first" is what I think Anthony's best advice that he gives in the video because he explains if we do it ourselves first then we will know why the students are asking the questions.

Chris May

Dr. Strange did an interview with Anthony Capps who graduated from the University of South Alabama. Anthony took EDM310 when he was enrolled at south, and was even one of Dr. Strange’s lab assistants. Anthony is currently teaching a third grade class at Gulf Shores Elementary School in Baldwin County. Anthony discussed his views about iCurio and Discovery Ed and how he incorporates them into his classroom. The topic of the first interview was the discussion of iCurio. Because Anthony is teaching in Baldwin County, Alabama, they allow iCurio to be used in the classroom. Icurio is an online tool that allows students who safely search through a filter for students to get anything online. One thing that is neat about iCurio is that students have their own account and can sign in on their own. Instead of using paper and pen, and keeping everything in binders, iCurio allows for the students to create folders online to save their research and materials to then can come back to it whenever they need to. Basically, none of their work will get lost. Another plus about using iCurio is that it can be used for all grades. One perk that stands out to me is the read aloud feature on iCurio. Since I would most likely teach special education at some point in my career, this feature on iCurio would be fantastic for my classroom. The next video between Dr. Strange and Anthony was about Discovery Ed. Discovery Ed is definitely a tool that will consider using once I have my own classroom. As a student, I would rather watch a video on a topic rather than read it. I agree with Dr. Strange about students being “listener-watchers” instead of reading and writing. So I think that using Discovery Ed will help my students understand more about the topic.

In the video, The Anthony-Strange Tips for Teachers, Dr. Strange and Anthony talk about 5 key components that teachers should know.The first point is, teachers really need to be interested in learning. People learn something new everyday and thats why we will never stop learning. Teachers learn the craft of teaching in their free time. The next point is to be flexible. Teachers also make mistakes and forget to leave thing out sometimes. Just because you are a teacher does not mean your perfect by any means. Dr. Stranger gives the example of a blog assignment he gave us this year in which he said he wanted us to create a presentation or video talking about one of the two topics he gave us. He said that after reading the posts he realized that he wanted the students to go over both of the topics and give a voice overlay covering both topics. He quickly went and took notes and changed the project instructions for next semester. I think that every student that takes EDM 310, then they know what hard work is, or from my personal experience playing football at the Division 1 level is hard work. In order for us to be successful, we have to work hard to get what we want. Getting kids engaged is another key point. I work great with kids, so having them getting engaged to learn what I am teaching will not be that hard. I agree with Anthony and Dr. Strange about reflecting because it never hurts to help to get others thought on your work. Thanks Dr. Strange and Anthony for both of your advice!

Corey Waldon

What can we learn from these videos with Anthony Capps?

iCurio

iCurio is an online tool that allows students to safely search video and audio media that can be used for educational purposes. It is a search engine that searches subjects around all state standards. iCurio is set up for students to log on and use on their own. It also allows students to save and upload their own work. It gives students practice on how to organize their work, search information safely and save work easily. From this video I learned that Anthony is using iCurio to its full advantage and he is requiring his students to use iCurio to do their own projects and research. I think it is great that his 3rd grade class is expanding their knowledge on how to use new technology and search the web safely.

Discovery Education

Discovery Education is a great tool for teachers and students. It gives students more than just the plain text of research but also videos of what is being researched. The idea of Discovery Ed is that students remember more from what they listen to and watch. From this video I learned that students associate their reading with what they watch in discovery videos. Students enjoy readings and videos that co-exist with one another which makes learning more fun and meaningful.

Day in the life of a 3rd grade teacher

In this video Anthony talks about how stressful the beginning of his teaching career was. He said he started off loving his job at first, but he was putting in too many hours and after the first couple months he started to hate his job and counting his days before he quit. After meeting with other teachers Anthony found new ways to manage his time and still be 100 percent effective in the classroom. One major thing Anthony suggests is that if you are not willing to put in a lot of time you will not be a successful teacher. He said the job can be tiring and a bit stressful but being organized and well prepared can help dramatically. What I learned from Anthony is that teaching can be as good as you make it. As a teacher you can drag on day by day hoping the time will come and the school day will be over, or you can be the teacher that strives to get 100 percent engagement out of all students and make learning fun.  I believe that teaching is a job that should not be all about the pay. It is a job where a person tries their best to challenge and encourage their students to be the best they can be and have fun while doing so.  I believe in the importance of education and I think as a teacher it is our job to prepare our students for the future of education and technology.

Recently, Dr. Strange interviewed a third grade teacher from Baldwin County at Gulf Shores Elementary School in lower Alabama named Anthony Capps. Anthony also happen to be one of Dr. Strange's students back when he attended the University of South Alabama and was even one of his lab assistants at one point. From the interviews that I have seen from Dr. Strange, it seems to me that Anthony is a successful teacher and learned a lot from Dr. Strange's EDM310 class.

Blog Post #14

For Blog Post #14, Dr. Starge assigned us to make our own assignment for a Blog Post, and I have to say that I had no idea what I was going to do it on. But I happen to come across this video on YouTube called Technology in Physical Education (21:18). Watch the video and then summarize it. If Dr. Stange was to use this in his future classes, I would suggest that it be done as one of the first blog post for the P.E majors in EDM310.
 

 Helena Baret is an assistant proffesor at SUNY Cortland. She talks about tools of technology used in the classroom of K-12 grades. She bases her knowledge off a theory of Pedagogical Content. In her video she explains how podcast, video, apps, internet based tools, pedometers and accelerometer, heart rate monitors, and active gaming or exergaming are including in physical education. She also has her class create calenders and games that can be played like jeopardy.

I thought this video was great because Helena explains a lot of the technologies that I used for EDM310. She explains how podcast can be a very helpful tool for a substitute teacher, which I think is an excellent idea because you can have the class do an assignment and explain it without actually being in the classroom. Helena even brought up my app that I described in one of my earlier blog post (coach's eye). She even mention's one of my group members, Corey Waldon, application called ePortfolio that he found to use in the classroom. She also likes the idea of blogging in the classroom for P.E. because she likes to get the reflections of what the students learn. Another tool that she brings up is active gaming and exergaming which is for the students who are not as physically active. She explains that this active gaming helps the students enhance in learning and helps them increase their coordination.

PLN

After stating that I was going to use Symbaloo more and even set it as my homepage, but I ended not using it as much as I said I was. I still think that this is a great tool for everyone who owns a computer. It is a great way to be organized and will be very helpful for teachers as well. I am glad that Dr. Strange introduced this to me because I can recommend it to other people who do not seem to be neat and organized. I have done my research about Symbaloo and I can find a bad review about it, so its obviously a great tool to have.

C4T #4

For our last C4T assignment, Dr. Strange assigned me to comment on Brendan Jones blog named Jonesytheteacher. Brendan is a guy who is looking for a way to mesh the future with today, especially in Physical education, and he also enjoys being outside. The two blog post that I commented on were titled Road Safety Film Festival and the other is Looking Forward, looking back.

The Road Safety Film Festival was about a project that he was going to assign his class. The project consisted of making a short movie about road safety issues. He decided to use this project through Tropfest, which is the "World's Largest Short Film Festival". The driving question that they were suppose to answer was "What are some important road safety questions that still need to be answered?" This post was written before he assigned to his class, so therefore he did not state his results until his next post which is titled Looking Forward, looking back. I commented on stating I that I thought it is a great idea for his class to learn about the road safety, and also that I wish him the best of luck to the project and hope it turns out to be successful.

Looking Forward, looking back is post about his school year that he had which is in the past and he learns from the past and looks forward to the future. Brendan describes how he was all about trying to avoid "spoon" feeding his senior class. Instead of making the seniors enjoy their last year of P.E. and making it easy for them, Brendan made them work a lot more than they should have. And he also describes the outcome of his Road Safety Film Festival project. He states that the project was a fail and says many things of the project went wrong. For example, the students wanted to record the short movie on their phone but the school had a rule that allowed no cell phones on campus. I commented by stating that when I start teaching, I do not expect everything to be perfect. I know I am going to fail at some things when I start teaching, but I plan to fix it the next time it comes around. I used some advice from my dad (a history teacher), which is to learn from my mistakes.

Project #12 Part B

Project #15

Blog Post #13

Alison Gopnik is a psychologist and a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. She researches about how children in their early stages think. Alison has wrote many books about her research. In her video, What do babies think?, she explains how the past 20 years scientist and psychologist have changed their views on how babies think. I think that it is crazy how babies and children use statistics and probabilities to solve problems. It makes sense that they do, but I have never really thought of it that way.

One quote from Alison that stood out to me was "Babies and young children are very bad at narrowing down to just one thing. But they are very good at taking in lots of information of lots of different sources at once." She uses an example of 18 month old babies by testing the broccoli experiment and how the babies react to what the person wants to eat. I don't remember anything from when I was a baby but I always wonder how smart I actually was. But as a young child, I do remember riding my first bike, going to the park and stuff like that. I never actually realize how much information on took in from just being around my family and seeing them do things. If adults had as much curiosity or imagination as babies do then I feel like we could all be Albert Einstein's and would not have a problem with learning. I also like her video of the little boy going through 5 different hypothesis's to try to figure out how the other box lights up. That video shows that children have so much curiosity and can be very smart. Overall this was a great talk from Alison Gopnik, and I think that every parent should watch this to show them that every baby or child has the potential to learn.

Corey Waldon

The video I watched “To this day….. For the bullied and beautiful”, was by a poet named Shane Koyczan. Shane is a poet who uses his talents to shine light on being young and being different. As a child Shane was picked on, called names, and considered an outcast. He said that as a youth he was asked what he wanted to be. After saying what he wanted to be he was told what he couldn't be. He was told to accept the identity of what others gave him. Shane’s dreams were called names also, they were said to be silly, foolish, and impossible. Shane ends his poem with a story of a boy and girl who were bullied. The two kids experienced their first sign of bullying at the age of 8 when they both got moved to the back of the class to avoid the spit balls. They felt they were outnumbered day by day. The little girl to this day still doesn't believe she is beautiful because of what was done to her as a child.  Then the story of the little boy who was adopted at a young age, by the 8th grade he was seeing doctors and taking pills to hind the pain. Shane wants people who battle with bullying to dispose of the thoughts of what they use to be and look at themselves as something beautiful.

From this Ted talk I learned that bullying is a serious issue. I learned that in order to get over what was done to you as a child you have to look at yourself as more than what others perceived you to be. Unfortunately bullying can begin at such a young age, you have no earthly idea of who you are or what you can be. Shane emphasizes on knowing your worth. It is important that we all find our gift and nurture. We are all special and knowing that allows us to reach all of our goals in life. I think Shane is a great poet and that this video can open a lot of people’s eyes to bullying and how it affect other peoples’ lives. That little girl will probably have to battle with the fear of being lonely and not enough all her life just because she was considered different in school. I also learned that as a teacher you should never tell a student their dreams are stupid, silly, or impossible. As a teacher we have to protect those kids who are different, prevent the bullying and give those students a life to look forward to. If we let students be bullied we will open the window for failure and even depression. As a teacher we should embrace all levels of creativity and intelligence. We should also encourage our students to embrace one another and learn to accept one another regardless of their differences. We should also teach our children that being different is not a form of alienation or a reason to outcast someone, yet being different is being special. The last thing I learned was that we are all beautiful and that we must embrace our beauty and let it shine.

Chris May

I watched the video turning trash into toys for learning by: Arvind Gupta.  Arvind Gupta is an indian toy inventor. He creates toys to help children learn about science. He has authored many books on these toys in several different languages.  In this video Mr. Gupta talks about new toys that are being created in small villages from recycled goods. The toys are made out of simply things like match sticks and rubber. The toys can be put together by the children that are using them, and can be very useful for things like geometry. Mr. Gupta is giving many different examples of very cheap and easy ways to create toys that will help teach children about science and the principles of it. I thought that all of these little gadget toys were really cool.

My favorite of all his toys was the straw one in which he blew into and cut the straw shorter and shorter as he was blowing in it which made the sound it creater become higher and higher pitched. This particle toy could be a really great tool for blind kids. Blind kids could very easily learn how to different length of vibrations create different sounds without seeing it happen but only feel the straw and hear it. I think that these toys are extremely useful and wonderful tools to help teach children in poverty stricken areas the properties of science and such.

Project #14

Blog Post #12

Sir Ken Robinson is an English author and an international speaker on education. In his video, How to Escape Education's Death Valley, Sir Ken Robinson explains the American culture of education and the three principles that humans thrive which are diversity, curiosity, and creativity. He also explains how current education works against them. He explains how humans are naturally different and diverse by explaining how a parent has two or more kids, the parents would never get them mixed up. I like his example of kids being diagnosed with ADHD because he is completely right about kids fidgeting after doing hours of school work (I personally think everyone would be fidgeting).

In the video, Ken states "Teachers are the lifeblood of the success of schools." I agree with this statement because the teacher is the one who guides the students on being successful and if the students are successful then it looks good on the school. And this is why I think teachers should get paid more. He addresses the fact that each child is unique in their own way because of their creativity. He explains that we should convert the way we learn to nurture skills and talents of children in order for the "death valley" to change.

Chris May- Ken Robinson

In Ken Robinson’s video Changing education paradigms he talks about how every country around the world is reforming public education. He gives two reasons for this. The first is economic. He goes on to say how can we prepare students to find their place in the economy in the 21st century. Thats a pretty hard task to accomplish especially considering how rapidly our economy is changing. The second reason is, cultural identity. He says that every country is trying to educate their students to have a cultural identity as well. Sir Ken Robinson then provides a very good point. That those two reasons are trying to be accomplished by doing what was done in the past. He explains that in doing this it is alienating kids, in which makes them think there is no point in going to school. Students have always been taught that if you work hard and go to college and get a degree you will have a job. The problem with that now days is that receiving a degree does not necessarily mean you will immediately have a job. He then goes on to explain that our present education system was created for a different time with different economies and such. After speaking on that Sir Ken moves to the debate of ADHD. He says that he can not say that there is no such thing as ADHD because he is not qualified to do so. He says that he knows for a fact that ADHD is not an epidemic. He then says that the children of today are living in the most stimulated period in the history of the earth. He is saying that children are given all types of things like xbox, cellphones, and TV shows, then the children are perpetrated for being easily distracted. The students are then given medicine to keep them focused on the boring school stuff. He then says that the rise of the prevalence of ADHD has risen at a parallel pace with the growth of standardized tests. He says that this seems more than coincidence to him. He goes on to say that we are getting our kids and students through class by giving them these drugs for ADHD and numbing them but what we should be doing is waking them up. He then says that our education system is set up on a production line type of standard in a sense that things are still ran on bells and there are separate facilities and things are all separated by age groups. Basically he is giving a very interesting example of burp back education. He also says that this is creating conformity. Sir Ken Robinson has a very eye opening opinion on our education system. I would have to say that I agree with him on most everything he is saying but, I must disagree with him on the argument of ADHD. I disagree because I suffer from ADHD. I would agree that there are plenty of students who take medicine for ADHD that have absolutely no need for it but there are some people who really truly have attention disorders. I have a very hard time keeping my focus on a single task even without stimulants like iPhones, games, and music. I could be in a blank room with only a piece of paper pencil and a writing assignment and still have a very short attention span. All in all I really enjoyed this video and I would like to see more of Sir Ken Robinson.

Corey Waldon   

Sir Ken Robinson:  Importance of creativity

Mr. Robinson is a well-spoken and funny man. I loved the way he presented his ideas and how he added humor to keep it interesting. What we shouldn't take from the video is all the humor but remember what his main argument was. Mr. Robinson wants our children to learn and be able to live in a world that we can’t even predict. Know the Importance of Creativity. Like me, Mr. Robinson believes that education and school is getting too caught up in the basics of teaching. Of course math, reading, writing, are important but what about the skills children can show and use outside of a regular classroom setting. I think he used a great example about the little girl who was thought of to have some type of mental disorder. The little girl couldn't be still because she just loved to dance. Well that little girl grew up to become a famous dancer and now is a millionaire. But, that little girl would have never got the chance to show her creativity if somebody didn't take out the time to really see why she acted the way she did.

Mr. Robinson wants the world to know that we shouldn't strip away our children of creativity and that the public school system needs to stop telling children they are wrong all the time because they are different. Every child has their own skills and niche but how will we know it if we don't let every child express their own ideas and feeling. Not every child will grow up to be a teacher, biologists, or doctor. So, as teachers it is their duty to allow the students to express every aspect of their being whether it be mentally, academically, athletically, etc. This too helps generations to come because the little girl that I wrote about in my previous paragraph will never forget what her teacher did for her and she will be that support for another creative student. To prepare our children for the future we must first learn from them and allow them to show their own creativity.

Project #13

Blog Post #11

Ms. Cassidy is a first grade teacher for Prairie South Schools in Moose Jaw, SK, Canada. Ms. Cassidy has been blogging in her classroom and her students blog since 2005. She shares videos and podcast about what the students do inside the classroom. The students only use their first name and not their last name due to the fact that her videos are up on the internet for everyone to see. Her video Little Kids...Big Potential is a video that she posted that show the students blogging on computers, using their webpage, wikis, videos, and Skype. I think its amazing how they know how to do all this while in first grade. Ms. Cassidy obviously does an excellent job teaching these students.

The Skype Interview with Ms. Cassidy was very interesting because she talks about her methods that she uses while teaching in the classroom. One technique that I could use in my classroom would be for the students to blog at least once a week. I agree with her on why blogs are better because instead of writing on pencil and paper, write on a blog to have an audience who can give feedback. Since I will be a Physical Education teacher, I would have the students  blog at least once a week about what their favorite activity that we did in P.E. And also, I like her idea about having a blog for student athletes to let them know if practice or games have been cancelled. This would be big help for students and parents to keep them informed about whats going on with athletics.

C4T #3

Nathan Horne is the founder of iPhysical Education: Inquiry and Technology in #PhysEd and is a Physical Education teacher currently based in Singapore. Nathan has a lot of connections through twitter and can be contacted through twitter @PENathan. His websites mission statement is "Pushing the boundaries of Physical Education in the 21st century. Highlighting best practice in Inquiry based learning and technology integration in Physical Education. To showcase physical educators who are at the cutting edge of their profession and inspire the #PhysEd community to improve the quality of teaching and learning in Physical Education worldwide." Nathan Horne's website is very useful for current and future PE teachers because it has a lot of different types of technology and resources listed that could be used for PE teachers inside and outside of the classroom.

Nathan's first blog post that I commented on is called Google Apps for #PhysEd - Forms for Record Keeping. This post was basically about using Google Forms to make it easier for keeping records and being organized. He shows a video on how to use the Google Forms. I commented on this post and stated that this would be very useful for a coach who is going through tryouts. Also, Nathan shows another video on how to connect to Wifi through a hotspot on a phone to an iPad.

The second post I commented on is titled Being a #PhysEd Role Model. This blog post stated that Physical Education teachers should be a role model in classroom, school, community, and life. Nathan states that teachers should want to have students remember their class forever. Also, he says that if you ask 10 adults about their experience in Physical Education that more than half of them will have negative memories about it.  He wants more PE teachers to speak out and be loud and proud for being a #PhysEd Role model. I simply stated that I agreed with him on PE teachers being role models. There are a lot of students that do not have role models to look up to, and since every student will take PE, then we have the chance to be that role model in those students lives.

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.