Blog Post 5

What I learned from the conversations between Dr. John Strange and Anthony Capps.

The conversations among Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps, via webcam, were quite interesting to watch. The conversation dealt with project based learning for third graders, as well as everyone else. After watching these videos I have a better understanding on project based learning and also a better understanding of what it is to be an educator when using project based learning. Something interesting I learned from this was that with project based learning you are trying to incorporate many goals within a project to acquire new knowledge to students. Anthony mentions some goals of a good project in the video, Anthony states that for a project to be successful, "It needs to be provided to an authentic audience, the students should be interested in the topic, it should involve the community and the project should be driven by state standards content." When students come together to work on a project, this project should be presented to an audience. Providing the project to an audience allows feedback from peers to the students and allows the students to learn from one another. Also when forming a project be sure to think of the students and what interest them. Students will preform much better on a project if it is on something that they are interested in. Another great component of a project is to involve the community into it. When you involve the community into a project for kids, you are providing them with a better understanding of how new knowledge learned from the classroom, can be used and explored all around them. However, one of the most important aspects of a project is that it should comply with state standards. For an example, if you are developing a project for fourth graders, the project should obtain goals that the state has developed as necessary for that grade level to know and understand. With project based learning, it is very crucial that children are allowed to revise and reflect their work. When children are able to revise their work they are allowed to see what mistakes they may have made, or are shown in which other direction they could have taken. This allows children to see that there are many other ways than just one to reach a goal.

Another fact I learned from these videos is that teaching is hard work. Teaching is a job that never ends, and to be a great educator, you, yourself, has to be interested in learning. Also as an educator, you will find that things don't always goes as planned. None the less, as a teacher you have to be flexible and creative to develop an alternate strategy to obtain the goal you want to meet. So yes, teaching can be hard work, but if you enjoy what you do and look at it in a way that you are helping children succeed in gaining an education that they will use to carry them throughout life, you'll never work a day in your life.

C4T Summary

The blog I have been following isThe PE GEEK This blog is a physical education blog and it deals with physical education in today's technological advanced world. In today's world, it is getting harder and harder to find time to exercise. There are just so many distractions out there today! A lot of those distractions are in fact what we rely on so heavily, technology. Today's world is constantly revolving around the newest technology and we are always looking to see what we can do to make the newest, even better. So ask yourself this, "What can be done to motivate people to live healthy lifestyles?" The answer is actually quite simple. In order to get people more excited about exercising, we should take the new technology that we have and use that to create exciting and productive applications. If you go to the app store and search for an app that allows you to play games, while being active at the same time, you will find tons. For example, one app isActive Kids Coloring, this app allows children to color images, not by sitting in one place though. This app has fun essentials that makes children want to get up and moving.

Another great app mentioned on this blog is The Walk. The walk is composed of different walking trials that almost allow you to escape to another land. The app accounts for the distance that you have traveled and the more you have traveled, the more of unlocking surprises occurs. Both of these apps provide active exercise, which is very beneficial to its user, and not to mention, it's fun!

Blog Post 4

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

Asking questions in the classroom is very important but how do you go about asking a question so that every student can benefit from it? Many teachers can be enabling children from learning on how they ask questions in their classroom. As a teacher it can be easy to get caught up in a lesson and you begin to ask questions like, "Does everyone understand"? This type of question is not focused on an individual student but rather the entire class as a whole and most likely questions like this provide no useful feedback. This type of question is generally used to make sure that you may continue on with the lesson, however, many students may not speak up and inform you that they do not understand. So instead of addressing the class as a whole, begin to focus on the individual student. Make sure that you are not calling on the same person over and over again, mix it up and have the students prepared to answer a specific question. When asking a question you should address it to the entire class so that everyone can be thinking of an answer. Then immediately after the question has been asked, pause for a brief moment while you scroll the classroom for someone to call on to answer the question. By taking this approach to asking questions you are becoming more productive by getting the entire class involved and also you are decreasing the amount of students who usually don't pay attention. If you use this method, your students are more likely to be actively involved with the discussion so that if and when they get called on to answer a question, they can do so properly.

So now that we know the proper way to ask a question, lets talk about after the question has been asked and the student begins to answer the question. First and foremost, you should always allow the student to finish what they are trying to say. Try and not interrupt the student, save your comments until after the student has finished answering, then you can tell them why or why not it was correct. Also a great way to get the whole class involved with asking and answering questions is to encourage your students to communicate with one another and to gather different viewpoints from their peers. If more teachers adapted this type of questioning and answering, the outcome of how the children learn and interact with one another would, without a doubt, increase.

Blog Post 3

How Can You Provide Meaningful Feedback to Your Peers?

To provide meaningful feedback to your peers you must follow certain rules. First and foremost, you must always stay positive. When critiquing someones else's work, staying positive is very important. Your job as a peer reviewer is to uplift the writer and to reveal errors you see in the work without discouraging the writer. The most important thing to remember is that no matter how bad someone's work may be, you should never take a negative approach to critiquing, doing so will only cause problems that will most likely not affect the writers work positively.

Another important component of peer reviewing is to make useful suggestions that are clear to the writer. When finding an error in the writers work, be sure to be specific on how it could be altered to be better. For an example, finding an error and just stating that it is an error without useful suggestions to the writer doesn't benefit the writer when he or she tries and correct the work. It's very important that the writer is told why what they have done is incorrect because without useful feedback, the writer could become discouraged or believe that the peer reviewer is just being negative towards their work. So the next time you are to peer review someones else's work, always remember that your job is to stay positive and to provide them with feedback that they can use to enhance their work.

Blog Post 2

Mr. Dancealot

The message of this video is that teaching is not just delivering factional knowledge to students. Students need teachers to assist them on how to use the knowledge that they provide, and to demonstrate for them. In the video, the teacher was trying to teach dance by just relating facts and ques to the students over a power point presentation and then expecting the students to be able to learn the dance alone from just that. They're are many different teaching styles out there and it's definitely not a matter of "One fits all."

Teaching in the 21st Century

To teach in 21st century, described by Kevin Roberts, is not to "teach" but rather assist an individual on how to use the knowledge that is already available for them. In the 21st century, a student has access to just about anything they need online, however, that information is useless to the student until shown properly on how to use it. I feel that the way Roberts sees teaching in the 21st century is very accurate. Teaching in the 21st century is dramatically changing and in order to aocommodate with this changing the teachers as well have to adapt to this 21st century style of learning.

Networked Student

This video addresses the question of, "Why does a networked student even need a teacher?" Even though today's student has access to virtually everything he or she may need though the internet, that student still needs guidance on how to attain that information. Being released on your own to complete a task involving using the internet as your major source is a bit overwhelming. There is tons of information out there. How do you know which is reliable information? How do you determine whether or not the information you are reading is useful information. This is where the teacher is needed. The teacher is there now as not solely the only source of information but to provide information of which they know and also to collaborate with children in this new journey of teaching.

Harness Your Students' Digital Needs

This video shows that a student should not be limited to the classroom. By allowing children to network online to other countries, we are giving children the opportunity to experience a diverse education. Vicky Davis is preparing her children for a more technological advanced future which is sure to come. Davis admits herself, that to teach students is to learn with them as well.

Flipping the Classroom

Flipping the classroom is new to me. I certainly have never experienced it throughout my education so far. I believe that this approach to learning can be very useful. By allowing the children access to instructions the night before class on what we will be covering in class the following day will be very beneficial to students. It will save time in class in which can be used to work independently with children as they may need extra attention. I do see this new approach to learning to really take off and to someday be the prime way in which the children of the future learn.

Blog Post 1

What aboutEDM310?

I've heard many things about EDM310. I've heard that this class is very time consuming and you will hate your life the first few weeks in this class. My fear for this class is time time it will take. I am taking 15 hours, I cheer here at South, and coach part-time at planet gymnastics. With all that going on I'm worried that finding the time for this class will be difficult. All I can do is to manage my time well and do the best I can. EDM310 is different than other courses in that you are networking and working with other people around the world, which you don't generally do with other classes at south.

Like stated previously I believe the most difficult aspect of this class will be my time management. I will have to set myself a strict schedule in which to get things done on time to offset this difficult aspect for me. I've heard that EDM310 is not an easy course but I am prepared to buckle down and take the time it takes to complete this course because, after all, it is a requirement for my major and also I am interested in learning what this class has to offer.

Practice Post

My name is James Hamilton and I am a junior here at the University of South Alabama. I was born and raised right here in Mobile, Alabama. I chose to come to South after being offered a cheerleading scholarship. Also I liked the fact that South was close to home and I wouldn't have to be away from family. My mother is Julie Hamilton and my father is Chris Hamilton. They are really supportive and help me a ton while I am making my way through college. I also have a sister, Melissa Dudley. Melissa just recently moved to Texas with her husband who is in the Army. Melissa and her husband have two children, Adrienne and Alina Dudley. Adrienne is five and Alina is nine months.

My passion is Cheerleading. I love everything about it. When I was younger I attended gymnastics classes and I quickly realized that I wanted to do more and more with the tumbling part of the gymnastics. It wasn't until my freshman year of college that I began to cheer. Soon after I began cheering, I feel in love with it. I like how you can lead on a crowd and the teammates on a team to hopefully win the game. Even though this is my third year of cheering at South, I am still very new at cheering (compared to most of the teammates who have been cheering since they could walk). I hope to continue to get better at cheering and learn all I can about it. Also I love how trusting cheerleading is. We throw the girls up pretty high, they have to be able to trust you to allow you to do that. I am choosing a career in education because I want to be able to pass on my knowledge to younger and eager children who may have the same hopes and dreams as I did.

Test Post 2

Test Post 2

My Test Post Title

This is my First Post. I clicked the HTML button which I should always do in EDM310. I am now a Blogger!